State officials say early childhood educational programs are paying off.
"We have students who are far more ready for first grade by the time they reach that," said Sen. Nichole Poolman (R-Bismarck). "We have all sorts of data from assorted schools to support that.
Poolman is a teacher in the Bismarck school district. She is one of the sponsors of a measure to allow local school districts to use taxpayer money to support pre-kindergarten programs. The measure also appropriates $4-point-7 million for grants to local school districts to help them run pre-school programs.
"Data coming out of Fargo public schools shows students went from a 20 percent rate of kids who are at risk or not prepared for kindergarten to a six percent rate," said Poolman. "In Bismarck public schools, when we take a look at our first grade benchmarks, we went from 55 percent of kids ready for first grade all the way up to 85 percent."
The bill came out of the Senate Education Committee with a unanimous “do-pass” recommendation. It’s now in the Senate Appropriations Committee.