“ ‘The coronavirus has crystallized in the minds of more people the absolute divisions between socioeconomic groups and between races,’ former Kansas City Mayor Sly James said.

“James tried unsuccessfully in his last year in office to pass a tax to expand preschool in the city.

“ ‘We are going to continue to have these problems until we make sure that every child has an even start at birth,’ he added. ‘That’s a whole lot more than pre-K, but pre-K is the one thing we have to even try to even it out.’ ”

*

“ ‘We know in the last recession, enrollment, spending and quality standards were cut, and that spending impacts continued well after the economic recovery was underway,’ said NIEER director Steve Barnett. ‘In most states, pre-K is discretionary. But it needs to grow and improve, not just hold on.’ ”

“Unforeseen and daunting budget constraints caused by the pandemic shutdown leave little optimism for maintaining current spending levels, let alone any future investments in early childhood programs.

“ ‘As pre-K programs tend to serve lower and middle-income families, that means that cuts to pre-K like this exacerbate educational inequality,’ Barnett said.”

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“ ‘If we’re going to recover, financially, from this pandemic, access to quality affordable early childhood education is going to be a critical piece,’ said Gary Parker, director of the Clark-Fox Institute.”

— “Financial Pain Of Pandemic Shutdown Could Stall Gains in Early Childhood Education,” by Ryan Delaney & Elle Moxley, St. Louis Public Radio NPR, April 22, 2020