(Radio Iowa) – A coalition of groups is urging the governor and legislators to provide state funding for a full-day of preschool for four-year-olds who live in low-income households. The statewide Voluntary Preschool Program currently covers a half day for each four-year-old. Des Moines School Board chair Jackie Norris says four hours of preschool is difficult for working parents to navigate.

“We are advocating at the statehouse, asking them to fully fund and support 16,000 young children, approximately at the age of 4, that are at 185% of poverty level, so they can have a full day of preK,” Norris says. Norris says enrolling those 16-thousand four-year-olds in full day preschool also would open up some child care slots.

“It’s a win for a lot of people who are trying to advance the child care effort,” Norris says. “It moves some of the four-year-olds out of a child care setting and moves them into a public school or a private school or Christian school setting where they can receive preK from an accredited teacher.” Public school districts as well as private and Christian schools may receive state funding for four-year-old preschool.

Norris says research shows 90 percent of a child’s brain develops by the age of five and preschool pays dividends in the long term. “You would see a dramatic impact on our literacy rates — they would go up…Our math rates — they would go up. Our attendance rates, they would go up,” Norris says. “We’ve got the research that shows the difference between a student who has gone to preK and not oftentimes is anywhere from 7% to 15% higher in their testing scores and testing abilities and that’s not just an urban issue. That’s urban, rural — across the state.”

Norris says in addition to public school districts, the Iowa Catholic Conference, the Iowa Association of Christian Schools and the Iowa Association of School Boards are part of the coalition calling for this preschool expansion. “I’m really hopeful that this is not a political issue,” Norris says. “This is an issue that’s really great for the kids of our state, for the kids of our state and that we can find some common ground and get this done.”

If all the four-year-olds who live in household with an annual income below 185 percent of the federal poverty level were enrolled in full-day preschool, the cost to the state would be 15 million dollars.