Affordable, quality preschool and childcare—yes please!
Posted September 15th, 2009 by Sarah FrancisIn a moment of maternal defeat, I decided that my son’s future wife will just have to deal with his attachment to pacifiers. Yes, we all have our early challenges. And some, like affordable quality preschool and childcare, are bigger than others.
So, it’s music to my ears that Congress just introduced the new Early Learning Challenge Fund to Address some key early learning challenges. The fund would provide competitive grants that challenge states to build comprehensive, high-quality early learning programs for children under age 5. We can’t let an opportunity like this disappear!
Tell your Congressperson to support the Early Learning Challenge Grants Fund legislation today:
http://action.momsrising.org/cms/letter/action_926/
Our leaders are finally understanding what we already know so well– kids start learning with their first breath of air, they don’t wait until age 5!
The lowdown
The House Education and Labor Committee has approved the Early Learning Challenge Grants Fund legislation to build a comprehensive, high-quality early learning system for children birth to age 5. These grants focus on building parent support and engagement, increasing access to quality child care and creating real quality standards.1
Why early care and education is so important:
Nearly 12 million children under age 5 regularly spend time in childcare arrangements2 but it’s a patchwork system with variable standards and finding quality care is tricky and expensive.
Yet, quality preschool and early learning programs are crucial— and more than 85% of a child’s core brain structure is formed by age 5.3
Early Learning Challenge Grants Fund will go before the full House of Representatives on September 17th. Take action today:
http://action.momsrising.org/cms/letter/action_926/
Tell your friends, family, and co-workers to take action too. We’re talking 8 billion (with a ‘B’) for kids in this country!
[1] http://edlabor.house.gov/newsroom/2009/07/chairman-miller-announces-new-1.shtml
[2] U.S. Congressional Committee on Education and Labor, July 2009 http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/publications/SAFRA-EarlyLearning.pdf
[3] Child and Family Policy Center and Voices for America’s Children, 2004
8 Comments
I am wondering if anyone knows about this.
Is it true that in private schools if you see a child being mistreated or you suspect child abuse that there is no option for you? Child Protective services can not be called in?
Recently I was at Eldorado Emerson in Orange CA. and I saw a little girl crying, the teacher said that she was crying because the spanish teacher was coming. I was concerned. then when the spanish teacher came I saw that she seemed distant and irritated with this little girl. .
I therefore suspected that the teacher is not treating this girl well. I brought it up to the primary teacher and the very next day I was kicked out.
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September 30, 2009 at 2:10 pm by ms.albaResearch has consistently shown that 3- and 4-year-olds who attend a high-quality preschool
are more successful in kindergarten and beyond—both academically and socially (Espinosa 2005).
I am Glad that preschool importance is getting more recognized. Preschool is where young children learn to express themselves in a grown up type of way. A high quality preschool will allow for children to accept and learn about the world around them, explore and ask questions. Preschool is not meant to drill the children into learning.
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September 17, 2009 at 11:03 am by ShayneThe government should never make preschool mandatory having kids in school at 2 will not make them smarter. I am living in Mexico City and it is normal to put your kid in private school at 2 almost to hold their place in the good schools and the kids are just more stressed out not smarter. Look at Finland who have the top schools in the world and their children do not start school until age 7.
I am not a fan of homeschooling (I has home schooled until 9th grade) but I do not think that that a proper education can be at home.
I have 2 children. one is 5 and in first grade, she loves school and does well. My son who is 4 was going to school until he got sick from nerves, he is home now and will go to Kindergarten in the States next year where they are not expected to have a 5.5 hour day with a rigorous schedule.
A well rounded education both at school and at home. It takes both.
No Child left behind is the big thing that is bringing the US education down and as long as we hold all children equal we will never be one of the top educated nations.
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September 16, 2009 at 1:22 pm by PamRe: Tea Party Comment. If you want to know who those “Tea Party” people are and what they are teaching…
Most are teaching about the Constitution of the United States. Many children have the Bill of Rights memorized along with the pre-amble to the Constitution. Do you know what is in the Bill of Rights, how/when it was written and what was the one key change made by Madison in the writing of the Bill of Rights? If not, it would be a good time to think about reading “From Tyndale to Madison” by Michael Farris, Esq. The founding fathers were heavily focused on maintaining personal freedoms- it was the overwhelming urge that caused them to leave England. Many of the very policies you are encouraging support of are taking away those freedoms and do not encourage personal responsibility as the government is providing for you instead of you providing for yourself. This leads to a lazy society and quick decline (take a look at the unemployment rate in Europe and the history of countries that have highly socialized systems). By the way, some of those “Tea Party” people are middle-income to lower income single-income families with moms that are staying home to keep their families running smoothly- they sacrifice a lot to do so. Some of us are working moms with higher education in history, international relations and government policy… enough to know that there is a need to look much deeper than what is stated in a speech. Many of these intentions are good intentions- but federal/state control leads to poor outcomes. Local communities do a much better job.
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September 16, 2009 at 1:11 pm by PamALL- Please do not take things at face value. You are giving away your parental rights for state control of your children’s education and welfare. This bill should be opposed for the following reasons:
1) It will create federal funding for state early education programs for children from birth to 5 years old, allowing government officials to make parenting decisions for children in these programs;
2) States may use the funds to create mandatory early education programs, since the bill does not require that the programs be voluntary;
3) The states will have an economic incentive to increase the number of children in early education programs, and may pressure families to enroll their children in these programs;
4) It will greatly increase the size and scope of the federal government’s involvement in education.
Please read a detailed legislative analysis of H.R. 3221 here:
http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=6971
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Donna Norton Reply:
September 20th, 2009 at 8:49 am
@Pam, There’s a lot of misinformation in your comments. This legislation will improve standards, training and oversight of programs serving infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, not require mandatory participation in those programs. See this article for more information:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/education/20child.html
Too many families are struggling to find affordable and high quality childcare. 40,000 kindergarteners are home alone afterschool every day in this country.
There’s certainly nothing in this legislation that would force a family who wants to care for their child at home to send them to an early learning center.
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Our country needs mandatory preschool so that our future generations are socialized and conditioned to meet the challenges of a new progressive country. I can’t imagine what children of those tea baggers are learning from their parents.
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September 16, 2009 at 6:12 am by CandiceI think that now, all parents want their children will be geniuses, and try to teach them everything from the earliest years.
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