Daily Herald Media Editorial Board

On Tuesday, the deadline passed for states to apply for a portion of $250 million in preschool development grants from the U.S. Department of Education. More than 30 states applied for funding to support “building, developing and expanding voluntary, high-quality preschool programs in high-need communities,” according to the department.

Wisconsin was eligible to apply for up to $15 million. The actual amount of our application, though, will be $0. The state is passing up the grant — in this round, anyway.

The reasons for this are complex, and the decision not to apply is not in itself a disaster for Wisconsin preschool kids. But it’s a missed opportunity nevertheless, and officials should begin planning now to ensure that the state doesn’t miss out on future opportunities to help young children succeed.

Here’s the background. Wisconsin received a similar federal grant for $34 million under a program called the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge. That grant started in January 2013 and will be active through December 2016. It’s a big, complicated program. The state’s Department of Children and Families, Department of Education and Department of Health Services all have a hand in administering it, and it’s touched everything from attempts to spur private investment in early childhood programs to aligning YoungStar, the state’s child care ranking system, with the curriculum needs of 4-year-old kindergarten.

In sum, the state is using that $34 million to help advance a number of initiatives that will help make sure Wisconsin kids get the support, love and education they need from birth.

But if that $34 million is working, wouldn’t an additional $15 million help these programs to expand even more?

Part of the problem, according to spokesmen from affected departments, is that administering the existing programs is already a big job. Part of the problem is the additional complication of coordinating among multiple state agencies and the governor’s office. Part of the problem is that this particular grant had a short turnaround time — though, it should be said, not so short as to preclude the majority of states from applying.

All that is probably reasonable as far as it goes. But here’s the problem: If early childhood in Wisconsin were the high priority we believe it should be, then any one of these objections simply would have been overcome, and the state would be actively seeking any and all opportunities to expand existing programs and start new ones.

If caring for babies and very young children and giving them the tools they need to succeed in life were the priority we believe it should be, then there would be a single, obvious official in the governor’s office in charge of coordinating efforts like these, cracking the whip on agencies — and ensuring that they had the staff capacity to respond quickly to opportunities like this one.

The state’s efforts to care for young children won’t be made or broken by any one federal grant — especially if Wisconsin applies for this one in the future. It’s not more important than ensuring that existing state and local programs work well, expanding public education efforts and fostering community coalitions. Closer to home, there are looming funding decisions in Wisconsin’s 2015 biennial budget that will effect young children; there also are needed policy changes and program expansions that can be accomplished by agencies or legislators independent of Washington.

But the brute fact remains that the state passed up as much as $15 million in money for preschools and early childhood services. That shouldn’t be shrugged off.

Caring for young children is not just the morally right thing to do; it is also one of the highest-yielding investments the state can make. We should expect our leaders to be aggressive about making Wisconsin a leader — the leader — in providing these services.