National: What can be done?

Realistically, what can be done about this issue?
Problem: financing a system of high quality early childhood education
Solution: Since financing a system of early childhood education is pricey, states can draw money from direct revenue sources, which are sources that provide revenue to the government for spending on programs and individuals. Public education is primarily funded through local property taxes, so to increase the amount of funds available for early childhood education the government can: 1) increase property taxes, 2) earmark a larger percentage of local property tax dollars for funds, and 3) create a special taxing district to raise money. 3 In many states, the second largest source for early childhood education is general revenue from sales, income, and other taxes or fees levied by federal, state, and local governments. 2 Revenues generated from the state’s lottery and the tobacco settlement funds can also provide funds for public preschools. Also, since sales tax on tangible goods and excise tax (tax on certain goods such as tobacco and liquor) generate large amounts of revenue, a designated portion of the money can be used for early childhood education and development services, including parent education, training for providers, a public awareness campaign, and compensation improvement initiatives. 4

Problem: Head Start must be strengthened
Solution: A new accountability system for Head Start can be developed to ensure that every Head Start center assesses standards of learning in early literacy, language, and numeric skills. This assessment can hopefully bring attention to low quality Head Start centers and help promote change toward better quality. A national reporting system to collect data from every local center can also be created. The data can be used to target new efforts in staff training and program improvement to increase children’s early literacy and school readiness. A national training program can also be implemented with the goal of training the Head Start teachers in early literacy teaching techniques in order to meet these standards. Other training topics can include, fostering phonemic awareness, classroom arrangement to support a literacy rich environment, and basic resources and materials necessary in each classroom to promote literacy. 6 These trained teachers can then train future teachers.
Children Who Entered Head Start in 1997 Performed Far Below Average Upon Both Entering and Leaving Head Start.
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/StrengthenHeadStart03/report.htm

Problem: limited alignment between what children do prior to school and what is expected of them once they are in school
Solution: To help eliminate this problem, a stronger Federal-State partnership in the delivery of quality early childhood programs can be developed. The states can establish quality criteria for early childhood education, including voluntary guidelines on pre-reading and language skills activities that align with State K-12 standards. 5 With this criteria in mind, early childhood educators will know what will be expected of children once they reach school and can create curriculum that will ensure that the children will succeed in kindergarten. In order to help states meet these criteria, the federal government will have to give the states more flexibility with their Federal child care funds. 7

Problem: There is not enough information for early childhood teachers, parents, and grandparents on ways to prepare children to be successful in school
Solution: To connect the best research and current practices in early childhood education, researchers can establish partnerships with early childhood program sites supported at Federal, State, and community levels. These researchers can “identify curricula that effectively promote language and cognitive development, early literacy, mathematics concepts and skills, while simultaneously developing children’s self-regulatory and social-emotional competencies, motivation, and positive attitudes toward learning.” 8 Also, the government can write guidebooks for parents, families, educators, and caregivers to provide more information and guidance.

What are the “powers at be” not doing? Why?
“Powers at be” are NOT:
• Making alignments between what children are doing before they enter school and what is expected of them once they are in school
• Ensuring that education research is being used to create quality curriculum
• Frequently evaluating early childhood education programs on how they prepare children to succeed in school
• Training teachers in early literacy techniques
The main reason why the “powers at be” are not taking the above actions is because government and society is just beginning to acknowledge and embrace early childhood education as a public responsibility and an important issue.

What impact could you have to change the current situation?
The following actions taken on a local level (as mentioned in an earlier blog entry) can also be done nationally:
• volunteer at public preschools like Head Start to decrease the number of teachers that need to be hired and paid
• donate toys and supplies so that the state can save money and spend it on other things such as training for teachers, more preschool facilities, and salaries.
• hold a fundraiser to raise money and donate it to a preschool education organization
• increase awareness of the importance of early childhood education by creating flyers with information about nearby public preschools and the benefits
People can also email the Bush Administration with their comments and opinions about this issue to comments@whitehouse.gov or to vice_president@whitehouse.gov to contact Vice President Richard Cheney directly. Or people can submit a question and have a live chat with one of the members of the Bush Administration at http://www.whitehouse.gov/interactive/

What do you foresee in the future if the solution(s) you’re advocating is/are implemented or if conditions continue in their present state indefinitely?
Children who do not receive quality early childhood education usually become dropouts and drain society through social services, welfare, criminal intervention and the like, rather than contributing to society. As the number of dropouts increase, the amount of state money spent trying to support them will escalate, thus causing less money to be spent on early childhood education. Also, according to longitudinal studies, those who do not attend preschool are more likely to repeat grades, be socially and emotionally immature, have failing grades, have low self-esteem, have more incidences of illegitimate pregnancy, drug abuse, and delinquent acts, and have lower employment rates and earnings. 1 If the number of children who do not attend preschool increases, then the future of our society will be in danger due to a declining number of successful adults.

Resources/Links
1 http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/3/topsyn3.html
2 http://www.naeyc.org/ece/critical/pdf/sales_taxes.pdf
3 http://www.naeyc.org/ece/critical/pdf/property_taxes.pdf
4 http://www.naeyc.org/ece/critical/pdf/financing.pdf
5 http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/earlychildhood/sect1.html
6 http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/earlychildhood/sect5.html
7 http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/earlychildhood/sect6.html
8 http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/earlychildhood/sect7.html