The president of the Montgomery County school board described the county’s early childhood education program as being in a state of “absolute crisis” as a result of proposed budget cuts.
As part of emergency budget recommendations, designed to stanch a $401 million budget shortfall projected for the county in the fiscal year that begins in July, board President Nancy Navarro said a long-anticipated early childhood program designed for Montgomery County’s growing number of low-income and non-English-speaking families would disappear.
Currently, the county enrolls 1,897 pre-kindergarten students and estimates 1,000 children are eligible but not participating.
The program would have used a Langley Park child care provider to institute full-day care and pre-kindergarten services to 60 low-income children ages infant to 5 years.
“It’s an absolute crisis in early care and education,” Navarro said. “When you look at the demographic shifts and the increase in poverty, it tells us we’re a different county now. And that calls for a realignment of strategic initiatives.”
While Montgomery County was the sixth-wealthiest county in the nation, according to 2006 U.S. Census data, it is increasingly diverse. In a large swath of the school district referred to by officials as the “red zone,” more than 80 percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. The area, which includes Langley Park, is also home to many of the district’s nearly 14,000 students who do not speak English at home.
The program, which was slated to begin this month, had been a collaboration between the school system and the Department of Health and Human Services. The school board had committed $96,000 of the program’s $340,000 price tag. HHS then took over the program and was in the process of choosing the community provider when County Executive Ike Leggett called for each department to recommend budget cuts.
Kate Garvey, the department’s head of Children, Youth and Family Services, said the hope is for the program to be restarted at the beginning of the 2009 school year, after the budget problem has been resolved.
