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RALEIGH — There are many reasons a counselor from the UNCG-based Bringing Out the Best program might be called upon to work with a preschooler.

Children with neurological problems, trouble coping with divorce or traits typical of patients with autism are among the program’s clients, director Wanda Dodson-Hoff said.

“We are kind of troubleshooting every area,” Dodson-Hoff said. Her caseworkers help straighten out behavior problems before children head to kindergarten, where the issues can be more difficult and expensive to deal with.

But Bringing Out the Best is one of several early-childhood programs at risk of budget cuts or outright elimination.

Smart Start, which provides funding to help pay for a range of early-childhood programs, and More at Four, a pre-kindergarten program for at-risk kids, would take some of the deepest cuts in the $19 billion budget passed by the state Senate last week.

Their cuts are smaller in raw-dollar terms, but fare poorly when compared to public schools or universities.

Those who work in early-childhood education say relatively small savings now will cost more in the long run.

They point to research that shows those who complete specialized pre-kindergarten programs do better in grade school than similarly situated students who didn’t have access to the same kind of leg up.

But the recession of the past two years has slowed tax collections, which in turn has required the state to cut virtually every part of its budget. Federal stimulus funds have helped offset some, but not all, of the cuts.

The House still has to write its version of the budget that will go into effect July 1, and that document will be reconciled with the Senate proposal before being sent to Gov. Bev Perdue for final approval.

“I would hope to do fewer cuts than the Senate did in that area,” said Rep. Maggie Jeffus, a Greensboro Democrat and one of the lead budget writers in the House.

Jeffus said she hoped to bring cuts in early-childhood programs more in line with those taken by other state agencies.

In the Senate budget, for example, More at Four took a $10 million hit, roughly 6 percent of its budget, which is fueled in part by the state lottery. Public schools, by contrast, take a 3 percent cut from last year’s budget.

Children in More at Four slots are those most at risk for failure when they reach grammar school, said John Pruette, who oversees the Office of Early Learning at the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. Those risks can be things such as medical conditions or coming from a low-income homes. Children of military families also qualify for the pre-kindergarten program.

There are more than 31,000 children enrolled in More at Four programs across the state, Pruette said. Nearly 2,000 were turned away at the beginning of the current school year. Even more students could be put on a waiting list at the beginning of next year under the Senate budget plan, he said, if the program is forced to cut as many as 2,000 slots.

Cuts to Smart Start funding are harder to pin down because agencies in each county decide how best to use the money.

But Dodson-Hoff said her staff of three full-time and four part-time employees already turns away some of the 250 referrals they get every year.

If some of the $15 million in proposed Smart Start cuts filter down to her agency, she said, even more preschoolers would have problems go unchecked until they are in a public school classroom.

The Guilford County Partnership for Children distributes Smart Start money to programs such as Bringing Out the Best in Guilford County. Director Jean Goodman said the partnership cut 10.5 percent from its budget last year.

“We softened the impact of some of the cuts by taking money out of reserves,” she said. “But obviously we can’t do that forever.”

Four Guilford County Health Department programs, including one that provides home visits to mothers of newborns, are paid for exclusively with Smart Start money.

In addition, Smart Start helps families, who couldn’t otherwise afford child care, to get their kids into high-quality preschools, which help them prepare for the rigors of elementary school. Without that head start, many students will find themselves struggling right up through high school, say early childhood education advocates.

“We are shortchanging these children for the rest of their lives,” said Teri Smith, who runs the Early Childhood Center at West Market Street United Methodist Church.

Without help sending their kids to preschools, many parents will have to stop working, she said, and that would add to the area’s economic woes.

Smart Start also helps preschool teachers pay for further education and it provides a pay subsidy for those who complete associate and bachelor’s degrees.

“It impacts what I can pay my teachers,” Smith said. “I have teachers I have filled out paperwork for Section 8 (publicly subsidized) housing and food stamps.”

For now, Smith and others are left watching the action in Raleigh.

According to schedules release last week, House budget writers expect to finish work on their proposal by the first week in June.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com