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As downcounty preschool and child care centers count their pennies in a lagging economy, state and county education officials say they're taking steps toward developing a universal preschool education plan in Maryland that could be implemented within the next five years.

Currently, many private child-care centers in Silver Spring, Takoma Park and Wheaton say they rely on county, state and federal grants to stay afloat. The ones that don't receive public money, such as the nonprofit Morgan Daycare in Takoma Park, are struggling to stay in business.

"Our expenses are getting higher and higher and we're having to raise fees, and the parents can't afford those fees," said Suzanne Miller, Morgan Daycare's director.

As a result of the belt-tightening, Morgan Daycare recently downsized to a smaller building and now only serves about 20 children instead of 40.

It's a familiar situation for private day-care facilities, say education officials, who acknowledge that parents' options for quality early education and child care are shrinking.

"There's no question parents are struggling to maintain their children with quality care," said Kate Garvey, the chief of children youth and family services for the county's Department of Health and Human Services.

To accommodate that need, Wheaton's bilingual preschool Centro Familia recently expanded from one classroom to three to serve more low-income families. But a year later, one-third of the spots still aren't filled, said the preschool's executive director Pilar Torres, who said many families are forgoing formal child care to save money.

There's little doubt about the long-term benefits of early education, especially among lower income students, who often come into kindergarten at more of a disadvantage than their more affluent peers, education officials said.

According to a February Montgomery County Public Schools study, children who receive quality early education typically have more academic success for the rest of their 13 years in school than those without some kind of preschool education. They stay in school and have better grades, the report said.

Preschool also can help close the academic achievement gap, according to the report, which said "early childhood is the most promising time to provide educational intervention for low-income children."

Garvey said the answer to providing affordable, quality early education may lie in comprehensive publicly-funded community preschool programs. As part of a 2008 task force that built on the state's 2007 preschool task force, Garvey co-headed a county study that researched how to reach that goal.

The findings, which recommend expanding existing preschool programs to full days, providing incentives to preschool teachers to receive more training and raising pay for preschool teachers to the level of MCPS teachers, are beginning to transform from paper to reality, she said.

Two years ago, HHS developed a competitive grant to fund teachers, materials and curricula in a low-income neighborhood preschool. CentroNÌa, a bilingual preschool on University Boulevard in Takoma Park, won the grant of about $420,000.

The grant has kept their balance sheets and services solid, said CentroNÌa president and CEO Beatriz Otero.

But more importantly, Otero said the grant shows a change in county philosophy about funding preschool education, which was previously only subsidized for children on the federal poverty line, or an annual income of $22,000 for a family of four.

"It's been a great step forward for the county," she said.

Montgomery Housing Partnership, a nonprofit housing provider in the county, also receives HHS funds for preschool education for its residents. The parents pay a $25 fee for the bilingual schooling for a school year, said an MHP representative.

The county also recently extended Head Start, a federally-funded preschool program for poor children, from half-day to full-day classes at 10 Title I county schools for a total of 21 classes in the fall.

The full day classes are also expanding to families beyond the federal poverty line, up to children at the state poverty line, or an annual income of $39,000 for a family of four, said Janine Bacquie, the director of the division of early childhood programs and services for MCPS, who also headed the preschool survey.

But Bacquie said all parents, regardless of income, should have a variety of affordable options for early education.

However, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown said in a tour of local preschools last year that the state doesn't have the money to fund universal preschool, which would likely come at a cost of more than $400 million for a two-year program covering ages 3 and 4.

Many hopes are instead hinging on federal stimulus dollars and President Barack Obama's promised $10 billion in grants for early education programs.

In anticipation of that money, Del. Tom Hucker (D-Dist. 20) of Silver Spring passed a bill in this year's General Assembly that requires the state Department of Education to develop a final plan for a statewide preschool program before 2014.

The bill "should put us on a path to universal pre-K over the next few years in Maryland," Hucker said in an interview Monday.

The state has already taken several steps to kick-start universal preschool, such as a 2007 grant that created pilot preschool programs in several public schools for families above the federal poverty line.

Rolf Grafwallner, the assistant state superintendant for the division of early childhood development at the state's Department of Education, said the grant will help many schools that have overcrowded preschool programs serving students at the federal poverty line.

But the County Council is not going to wait on state and federal funds to push universal preschool, said Councilwoman Valerie Ervin (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring. Ervin said she expects a majority of the council to move on providing universal pre-k options for parents before the state's goal of 2014.

She said giving parents multiple options for quality preschool education is worth the cost now, rather than forking over tax dollars for students who inevitably fall into the "infinitely more expensive" criminal justice system.

"We are beginning to recognize that this is the way to spend the money," she said of preschool education.

-Ten Title 1 Montgomery County Public Schools expanded half-day Head Start preschool classes to full-day classes for the 2009-2010 school year, offering a total of 21 full-day classes. Head Start is a federally-mandated preschool program that serves students at the federal poverty line. But after a county preschool study last year, county education officials decide to expand the program to a full day while also serving families with slightly higher incomes than the federal poverty line. Those elementary schools are: Arcola, Broad Acres, Harmony Hills, Summit Hall, Wheaton Woods, Weller Road, Watkins Mill, Washington Grove, Viers Mill, Twinbrook, South Lake, Rolling Terrace, New Hampshire Estates, Montgomery Knolls, Georgian Forest, Highland, Brown Station, Clopper Mill and East Silver Spring.

Source: Montgomery County Public Schools