| In tough times, preschool remains a priority for parents |
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Original Source | The Oregonian Some parents at a recent metro-area preschool forum were looking for more than just the right preschool. A number were searching for a paycheck, either for themselves or a spouse. "I'm looking for a job," said Punith Aruna, a Lake Oswego resident attending the forum with her 4-year-old daughter, Smriti Maduri. "If I get it, I'll have Smriti in a Montessori school. I cannot do it now." Aruna said she found the tuition at a Montessori school she researched "very, very expensive." So she's exploring more traditional, community-based schools that usually charge less. Aruna is not the only parent who has had to think outside the sandbox when faced with a potentially wallet-sapping choice. Some parents have had to become creative to balance preschool enrollment with the financial realities of a recession. To cope, they report cutting other expenses, reducing the number of preschool days, asking for financial aid or enrolling their children in a community preschool rather than the pricier private or foreign language models. A few metro-area preschools and early education groups report enrollment plummeting 20 or 25 percent from a year ago, forcing them to make adjustments such as slashing employee hours or expanding their appeal by starting programs for younger students. Others say they haven't seen many problems yet but are budgeting conservatively and trying to keep prices low. Jeanne Lemieux, director of the Child Care Resource and Referral of Multnomah County, said that area preschools have lost some families during the recession, but she has not heard of any local centers closing. Others agree. "I have not gotten a sense that there are a lot of big cutbacks happening. I think it depends if a center or provider is heavily dependent on a particular industry," said Merrily Haas, executive director of the Oregon Association of the Education of Young Children. In a city such as Portland, the effects of layoffs are more dispersed, she said. Melody Barerra, an administrative assistant at Providence Montessori School in Northeast Portland, said the school hasn't seen families drop out, but there is a jump in requests for tuition assistance. "When it comes to education, we're seeing people can justify it, even though it's difficult," she said. "A lot of families are working hard to keep their kids here -- they might be forgoing other things so they can come."
Ivana Chatterton, a student at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, has cut back on hours at a Southeast Portland preschool for her 4-year-old daughter, Grace. Chatterton is working to get a business degree to improve her job prospects in a bad economy, but her student loans that cover child care costs have been cut. Chatterton, who lives in Estacada, tried a different option closer to her college but found her child wasn't happy and the quality wasn't as high as the school her daughter loves -- Shannon's Child Care & Preschool in Southeast Portland. Longtime owner Shannon Aden worked with Chatterton by letting her trim hours from her weekly schedule and accepting a late payment. Similar situations began cropping up last fall, when a few clients approached Aden to say they had to cut back because they feared for their jobs. "I renegotiated, which is something I never had to do in the past," Aden said. Chatterton says she's grateful to see Grace continuing to develop independence and social and academic skills with a teacher she knows and loves. "It's not like dealing with an electric bill. This is a person who is close to your child," Chatterton said. Children need to develop social and emotional skills such as how to interact with other students, follow teacher directions or focus on a task, said Albert Wat, a senior associate with Pre-K Now, a campaign of the nonprofit Pew Center on the States. Without a strong foundation, students are more likely to be held back or placed in special education, he said. Preschools also are important in preparing children to learn later, Wat said. In terms of early literacy and math skills, children who skip preschool could be behind when they get to kindergarten, he said. Portland mother Kate Kelley believes preschool is a must-have worth pinching pennies elsewhere. "Preschool is not taking the cut with the economy," said Kelley, whose daughter Sophia is 2. "I want her having that social experience. We'll cut back in other areas as needed." Relatives can help make preschool pencil out. Christy Goodell, who had hoped to stay home until both her children were in school, went back to work in September after watching the family's stock market investments drop. But five days a week of preschool cost too much. So the Tualatin mother pays for four and relies on her nearby mother to watch 3-year-old Brandon one day a week. Many cooperative preschools give parents the option of working in the classroom and otherwise helping out in exchange for tuition that's lower than many other schools. "It's hard to find as good a quality preschool without paying more if you don't join a cooperative," said April Messinetti, mother of two and volunteer president of their preschool, the Burlingame Cooperative Preschool in Southwest Portland. "You're getting a lot more for your money." But in some ways, cooperatives can be vulnerable in a recession; if the parent volunteer decides to go back to work for extra income, it makes it harder to fulfill the obligations of the school, Messinetti says. The co-op is flexible with families that get behind on payments but can't directly subsidize tuition because there isn't room in the budget, Messinetti says.
Education groups that provide "extra" services, such as contract instructors for foreign language courses, report more parents dropping the extras to retain more traditional preschool class time and social experiences. Portland Early Learning Project, whose instructors travel to preschools to teach Spanish and sign language, says enrollment in its classes has recently declined by 20 to 30 percent. None of the project's five employees has been laid off, but they work fewer hours. "It would be more businesslike for us to let one of our teachers go, but they're so good, and it's so hard to find talented people working with young children," said Kara DeGiovanni, the company co-founder and an instructor. "They're willing to work fewer hours, and we're willing to absorb the loss." Across the board, preschools report more inquiries from parents about financial aid, scholarships and discounts. "There are families that were fairly affluent a year ago that are struggling," said Jacqueline McKinster, owner and director of the three Creative Minds Learning Centers on Portland's east side, which emphasizes healthy meals and a comprehensive preschool curriculum. Requests for tuition assistance have been rising slowly, up about 15 percent from the previous year, she said. But on the other hand, Creative Minds is getting more referrals. McKinster believes that hard times actually can help good preschools, because parents are only willing to take the financial plunge for a program that proves its value. "We're getting a lot of calls where price is an issue," she said, "but they still don't want to sacrifice quality."
Many young families are squeezed by what's called the middle-class "pre-kindergarten pinch." They earn too much to qualify for state-funded preschool programs yet struggle to pay on their own. In Oregon, a family of four that makes more than $21,200 annually -- the federal poverty level -- does not qualify for state-funded preschool programs. "Everything we're hearing from people and programs confirms the pre-K pinch," said David Mandell, research director for the Children's Institute, a nonprofit in Portland that advocates for early education. "Given what we've seen in Oregon, in terms of the real dramatic rise in unemployment, it's hard to imagine that's not translating into real difficulties for working families -- or families who were working -- with young children." About 39 percent of middle-class Oregon families struggle to afford early education and care, according to a national study last fall by Pre-K Now, a campaign of the Pew Center on the States, a national nonprofit that studies state policy solutions. Of the roughly 20 states studied, only Washington ranked worse, with 42 percent of middle-class families struggling to pay for early education. Oregon's income-eligibility cutoff of $21,200 for state-funded preschool is one of the lowest in the nation.
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