What may be Minnesota's most important educational report card was issued earlier this month, and the marks weren't good. The fall 2008 results of a yearly school readiness assessment of new kindergartners were down from 2007 on all five aspects of development measured.

Fewer than half of the 6,310 kindergartners surveyed -- 10 percent of the state total -- were deemed "proficient" and fully ready for school. About two out of five were rated "in process" toward readiness. On two key measures, language/literacy and mathematical thinking, one child in eight was judged "not yet" prepared.

Those are troubling findings -- particularly since they come in the sixth year of the assessment, five years after the formation of the Legislature's early childhood caucus, and almost a decade after research and grass-roots advocacy efforts coalesced to put early education on state policy agendas.

Despite those efforts, too many children are still arriving in kindergarten behind and, research says, prone to stay behind throughout their school years. "Why would there have been progress?" asked Todd Otis, executive director of the advocacy group Ready 4 K. Though policymakers are talking more about the value of early learning, "we haven't done anything different to change these numbers."

He's right, to this extent: Minnesota has not committed hundreds of millions of dollars to a universal preschool program -- or, for that matter, the tens of millions needed to make center-based child care with an early learning component available and affordable for more low-income families, as it was before a major state funding cut in 2003. That cut was never fully reversed, despite a 2005 study by the state Department of Human Services that found that children in center-based programs are twice as likely to rate "proficient" when they arrive in kindergarten as are the state's 5-year-olds as a whole.

But signs of positive change are appearing. A preschool voucher pilot project, sponsored by the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation, is in progress in St. Paul's Frogtown neighborhood. The 2009 Legislature approved and Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed into law a quality rating system for preschool and child care providers, a prerequisite for efforts to improve the quality of such programs. Federal economic stimulus funds include $26 million for child care-related services in this state.

Also notable is a rare joint statement this spring from the school boards and teachers' unions in Minneapolis and St. Paul, in support of early childhood education. It's believed to be the first such declaration from K-12 schools in the state. It ought to be the first of many.

The statement acknowledges that too often "the K-12 system and the community of early childhood education and care have not worked together as well as we could." That was evident as recently as 2007, when a proposal for all-day kindergarten vied with preschool proposals for state funding. Both are needed; neither fared well in the Legislature's funding tug-of-war.

The new statement promises an end to such rivalry and the K-12 establishment's support for increased funding for early childhood education. It cites research that shows that participation in a high-quality preschool program enhances students' K-12 success. "In the long run, it's more expensive for us not to do this," said Minneapolis Federation of Teachers President Lynn Nordgren.

Both Minneapolis and St. Paul school districts are backing their commitment with resources. Both operate preschool programs at elementary schools; St. Paul's is financed with voter-approved property tax dollars, while Minneapolis directs 6.7 percent of its federal Title I funds, as well as newly enacted federal stimulus money, to its preschool.

As a result, next year Minneapolis will add 225 more 4-year-olds to its "High-Five" preschool program. That will reduce, but not erase, a waiting list for the sliding-scale tuition program that now runs to 500 and more children per year. And because the program's expansion relies on one-time money, its future in 2011 and beyond is uncertain.

Minneapolis and St. Paul schools have recognized something important: Their own success, and that of many of their students, is vitally connected to the quality and availability of preschools. They're backing their resolve with resources. But they look in turn to state and federal government for the bulk of their funding. Those governments also ought to make preschool a priority.