LOS ANGELES, April 28 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out a decade of progress in increasing preschool enrollment in the United States, resulting in a nearly 20 percent decline in enrollment in a single year, said a report of U.S. News &World Report.
According to the 2021 State of Preschool report, published Tuesday by the U.S. National Institute for Early Education Research, enrollment in state-funded preschool dropped for the first time in 20 years during the 2020-2021 school year, erasing a decade of growth and resulting in a decline of nearly 20 percent, or 300,000 children, in a single year.
The greatest negative impact was on children from low-income families and racial and ethnic minorities, the report showed.
"The pandemic highlighted and exacerbated long-standing problems of inadequate enrollment, quality and funding," said Steven Barnett, senior co-director and founder of the institute.
"Challenges such as health risks, closed classrooms and remote classrooms disrupted an already fragile system," he said.
原文地址：http://en.people.cn/n3/2022/0429/c90000-10090902.html