The Blade: HOPE Toledo seeks city funding for early childhood education
Young people need early childhood education, and HOPE Toledo needs funding from the city to continue to make that happen, a Toledo City Council committee was told.
An “eerie connection” exists between kindergarten readiness scores, third-grade reading schools, and eighth-grade math scores, HOPE Toledo president and chief executive John C. Jones said in a Thursday presentation to council’s Finance, Debt, and Budget Oversight Committee.
“And we can push that out to graduation,” Mr. Jones told the committee. “It is my firm belief, and there is research data that says the earlier the investments [in education] the greater the return.”
Mr. Jones presented information to the committee in conjunction with Toledo City Council’s consideration to provide $1.25 million in federal relief to fund a universal pre-kindergarten program, which will be presented for a vote at the May 30 meeting. If approved, it would be the city's second consecutive year to fund such programming.
Pre-kindergarten programming typically serves children at age 4 with structured activities that help prepare them for kindergarten. HOPE Toledo provides the pre-kindergarten education standards and curriculum to established childcare centers that want to partner with them to deliver education to the children enrolled at their centers.
On its website, HOPE Toledo describes itself as a 501(c) 3 organization established to help children obtain high-quality early childhood education through HOPE Toledo Pre-K and postsecondary training in college or trade schools through HOPE Toledo Promise.
Since launching in 2021, the HOPE Toledo preschool program has grown from having 10 community-based partners to 18. In addition, the number of students enrolled in the program has increased from 170 the first year to 270 kids this year.
Test scores, while early, indicate promise, as Mr. Jones noted that 31 percent of students enrolled in HOPE Toledo’s program demonstrated sufficient kindergarten readiness after one year.
According to data from the Ohio Department of Education, that number is nearly double the kindergarten readiness test scores of kindergarteners enrolled in Toledo Public Schools who did not participate in a HOPE Toledo pre-kindergarten program, Mr. Jones said.
“What we’re seeing is that by doing it the way we are doing it we are moving in the right direction, it’s trending,” Mr. Jones said.
Approximately 1,200 to 1,500 4-year old children living in Toledo are not enrolled in any type of preschool program although they are eligible, he said.
Lack of transportation and financial constraints are often the barriers a parent or guardian faces in enrolling students in the program, he said.
In addition, teacher retention rates are also a challenge, as many pre-school teachers earn between $9 and $11 dollars per hour. The preschool teachers who work through the HOPE Toledo program make $19 per hour, he said.
It costs about $10,000 per student annually to provide pre-kindergarten education, and long-term sustainable program funding also poses a significant challenge, Mr. Jones acknowledged. He continues speaking with state legislators while working with philanthropic organizations to shore up the funds.
“I can honestly say right now I don’t have an answer for you yet. We’re working with other groups to learn more about what other communities have done and how they have done it successfully,” Mr. Jones said at the committee meeting.
The city of Toledo will not be able to continue to fund the preschool program long-term, Councilman George Sarantou, chairman of the council’s Finance, Debt and Budget Oversight Committee, said after the meeting.
Although he believes early education is important, and he believes that council will support the initiative in this funding cycle, he acknowledged that city support is limited because of the one-time federal relief funds being used to support the program.
“They [HOPE Toledo] need to be talking to Toledo Public Schools and Washington Local Schools about funding universal pre-K,” Mr. Sarantou said. “They are going to have to come up with a program because funding education is not the priority of the city.”
