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Katie Walden, a mom of three in Garner, quit her job when she couldn’t find an affordable preschool option for her son. Her family is now struggling to make ends meet from a single income.
“There were zero options for us,” Walden said last Monday on a press call to mark the release of a report on the state of preschool across the country. “Zero options for our family that was living right outside our state’s capital.”
The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER)’s annual State of Preschool Yearbook showed North Carolina’s 24% drop in pre-K enrollment from 2020 to 2021. This decline the case in almost every state — and the first time pre-K enrollment declined in 20 years.
“The pandemic erased an entire decade of progress in preschool enrollment,” said Steven Barnett, NIEER’s senior co-director and founder. “Challenges such as health risks, closed classrooms, and remote preschool disrupted an already fragile system.”
North Carolina reached 19% of 4-year-olds in 2021, compared to a steady 25% in recent years. The state is not “within reach” of universal pre-K, the report says, noting 16 states serving close to or above 70% of 4-year-olds. Barnett wrote in The Washington Post about pre-existing issues of quality, staffing shortages, and insufficient state funding (which has not changed in 20 years when adjusted for inflation).
“Even if enrollment fully rebounds and we return to pre-pandemic rates of expansion, America will not provide access to preschool to all 3- and 4-year-olds this century,” Barnett wrote. “Now is the time to invest the necessary resources to give every child — regardless of their Zip code — access to high-quality, affordable preschool.”
Walden highlighted the domino effects a lack of early care and education has on families and communities.
“The cry for universal preschool can be heard at every playground, in every single moms group, and other struggling parent groups on Facebook and beyond,” she said. “This pandemic has caused so many families to be without quality care for their children. And I live in a place just like so many others where companies are begging for employees, but how can you return to work or keep current positions when we don’t have affordable quality care for our children?”
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