Quality Child Care and
Education: |
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Education is our country’s most pressing concern. The public and politicians agree that well educated citizens are essential to a safe, caring, and economically prosperous democracy. Statistics about the capability of our youths – measured in terms of their skills and knowledge on standardized tests – are woefully disappointing, especially in an era when our country is richer than ever before. Our country’s riches are not reflected only by economic indicators. Our wealth also includes a vast reservoir of information about what young children need in order to become healthy, happy, responsible, and intelligent citizens. Without a doubt, children’s learning begins right from birth – long before they enter kindergarten and their years of formal education. Children are actively learning wherever they are – in their homes, their childcare centers, their neighborhoods, and where they worship. Parents are undeniably children’s first and foremost teachers. Later, schoolteachers assume an important role. Rather than compartmentalizing education by age or administrative systems, we must acknowledge that learning is a continuous and lifelong process – with the early foundations exerting a powerful influence on children’s later abilities and opportunities. A real scenario from today’s kindergarten classrooms illustrates how much early learning experiences matter. In a single classroom, children vary widely in their entry-level abilities. Typically, children enter school with a chronological age of 5 ½ years old and a "developmental age" that matches. Some children, however, have a developmental age of only a 3 ½ year old (or younger) in terms of their language, pre-literacy, numeric, social, and reasoning skills. Other children, advanced for their age, have skills that earn them a developmental age of 7 years (or older). These differences in entry level skills are attributable, to a large degree, to the quantity and quality of their early learning experiences – and how impoverished or enriched their homes are. However, study after study shows that when children from impoverished homes are provided with high-quality early childcare and education during their first 5 years of life, they enter school with age-appropriate skills. Without these extra learning opportunities, such children enter school "delayed" and at a profound disadvantage. To date, the evidence shows that even excellent schools cannot entirely compensate for the negative toll caused by 5 years of inadequate learning. The early years count – a lot – as documented in more than 20 carefully conducted studies about the impact of early childhood education (sometimes called early intervention or enrichment) on children’s later school performance. A recent 10-site study by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development affirms the value that positive preschool experiences can have. But early learning is not everything; to fulfill their potential, all children need to have early positive learning experiences followed by equally strong opportunities later – in schools, at home, and in their "free time" activities. Families and schools today face challenges that differ from previous times. The majority of children now have both parents working outside the home. This applies to high income as well as to welfare-to-work families. All of these children need to be guaranteed quality childcare in the first 5 years of life, followed by good school and after-school programs in the elementary school years. Child care, regardless of where it is provided or who provides it, is a form of education and can influence children’s achievement levels. All too often, parents are bombarded by what appear to be controversies or changing opinions of so-called experts. Who are parents to trust? What should parents look for in "quality" childcare programs? To what extent do the business community and government have a responsibility to ensure positive early learning experiences? These questions are at the heart of deliberations that are occurring in virtually all states and communities throughout our country. There are unprecedented high levels of federal funding to "enhance" the quality of childcare provided to families receiving childcare subsidies. At the same time, Early Head Start programs are being launched to reach some of the families in poverty. Increasingly, middle and upper income families are dismayed by the lack of quality programs available in their communities to meet their child care needs. Creating a strong network of quality early educational programs for children, and a resource in every community where parents can obtain trustworthy parenting information and guidance, are essential to solving "the national education issue." Quality childcare is not simply a matter of getting babysitters so parents can work. Parenting information is not just for teen parents or parents living in tragic life circumstances. First rate childcare and parenting information are for everyone. They are keys to our nation’s successful future. They also are the right thing to do. |
Two weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Education released new findings about the long-term benefits of early education. In a landmark study, the Abecedarian Project in North Carolina, children from very impoverished homes were provided with quality early childhood education and parenting support, along with good health care, nutritional supplements, and needed social services. The comparison group received good health care, nutritional supplements, and social services, but not continuous early education – 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year, for the first 5 years of life. From 18 months of age until 21 years, the children in the early educational group showed higher levels of performance on measures of intelligence, language, reading, math, and real world indicators such as lower rates of grade repetition and placement in special education. As young adults, those who received the early educational treatment were much more likely to go to college, to be fully employed, and to have delayed childbearing themselves (fewer teen parents). What is the cost of such a program? In today’s dollars, about $11,000 – or about $212 per week. Many economically advantaged families pay this much – and more – to give their children good care. Indeed, taking care of young children is not less expensive than providing them with a quality college education, something that the public and private sector alike already value highly and invest in. Who needs these programs? All children who are in non-parental care at least 20 hours a week, along with children whose parents lack the resources to provide adequate levels of positive learning experiences, day in and day out. Would these programs be mandatory? Definitely not. Quality learning and parenting programs would be voluntarily sought out by those who anticipate they can benefit from these supports. Would the government have to create a huge bureaucracy to launch and oversee these programs? Decidedly not. To the contrary, now is a rare historical opportunity to integrate and reduce the local, state, and federal bureaucracies that currently fund and regulate childcare and early intervention programs. There are also many creative avenues, largely undeveloped, to engage the private sector. Is it economically feasible to provide these programs to large numbers of children and families in the near future, especially when there is not enough money currently allocated for high quality K-12 and higher education school programs? The answer to this question depends on political will and where we choose to place our priorities for spending. Other countries have made universal, affordable, and high quality childcare a reality for all families – recognizing that everyone benefits from this investment. Family choice and parental responsibility are not usurped by offering community-based supports to children and families. Rather, high quality early childhood education is an integral part of the lifelong educational process that our society already embraces. Strengthening existing programs and services, combining funding streams that are now overly compartmentalized and often inefficient, and strategically developing new ways to fund quality childcare and education are realistically achievable. We simply need to act, in a non-partisan way, on the rich knowledge base we have. We need to build on resources in our local communities. Each month, year, or decade that goes by without strong action – on behalf of every child born – is time lost, opportunity denied, and lives affected. "Fix it," remedial, and punitive programs have never been able to correct the dire consequences of poor quality care for young children. What our communities and children cannot afford is the status quo. Drs. Craig and Sharon Ramey are authors of Right from Birth: Building Your Child’s Foundation for Life and Going to School: How to Help Your Child Succeed, both published in 1999 by Goddard Press (New York). They direct the Civitan International Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, which does research on children and early brain development, and have conducted research for more than 25 years on the efficacy of early childhood education programs, including the Abecedarian Project.
Web Note: For more information about child care in Alabama and around the nation visit the Alabama Child Care Consortium web site. |
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