By
Greg Kaufman and Elaine Weiss
8
. Expanded
Access to Quality Pre-kindergarten: When
a Nobel Laureate economist (James Heckman), chair of the Federal Reserve Bank
(Ben Bernanke), and one of the nation’s best-loved billionaires (Warren
Buffett) all agree that quality pre-kindergarten is the smartest public
investment, shouldn’t that give us pause? A recent report on Texas’ large,
poor-quality pre-k program demonstrates that
even low-cost
programs deliver public benefits. Expanding access in states that already provide higher-quality
pre-k—like Alabama, Illinois, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania—would greatly
increase those benefits. Further, Head Start currently
serves fewer than half of eligible low-income 3- and
4-year-olds and needs
renewed attention. Research shows that children who participated in a quality
program during their preschool years are better prepared to learn, have higher
self-esteem, and more developed social skills when they start
kindergarten. These investments are truly a no-brainer.
7.
Elimination
of Waiting Lists for Child Care Subsidies: One of
the policy areas hardest-hit by the recession is subsidized child care.
In 2012,
27 states had child care policies that left families worse off than they were
in 2011, and 23 denied assistance to eligible children. Only one state
reimbursed child care providers at the federally recommended level, compared to
22 in 2011, making it tough for them to serve low-income children.
Florida alone has over 75,000 children on waiting lists. It’s difficult for a parent to work,
or even look for work, when quality, affordable child care is unavailable.
6.
Affordable
physical, mental, and dental medical care: Low-income children
miss more school days each year and many lack focus in class relative to their
economically better-off peers. This is due in part to higher rates of
illnesses and fewer resources to address them, and it further widens the
achievement gap. We urge the president to appropriate $50 Million in his FY 2014
budget for school-based health center (SBHC) operations.
SBHCs provide access to care for over 2 million
school-aged children,
protecting them from
cavities and gum disease, ensuring that they can actually see their text books and
whiteboards, reducing diabetes through diet and fitness counseling, screening
and treating for depression, and diverting students from emergency rooms so
they can stay in school to learn.
5.
Expanded
learning time that delivers enriching afterschool experiences: As
an increasing number of states commit to expanding the school day and year, we
urge them to ensure that low-income children benefit from the same kinds of
mind- and world-broadening experiences as their higher-income peers. Music,
arts, organized sports, chess, trips to museums and the theatre—
all of these kinds of activities build on what students learn from 9-3.
Adding hours simply for test preparation, however, would waste the opportunity
for the kind of
afterschool experiences that inspired Pobo Efekoro, who says that learning to play chess
literally changed his life.
4.
Experienced,
qualified teachers in appropriately-sized classes: Low-income
and minority students are disproportionately likely to be taught by
less qualified and uncertified teachers. These students also go to
schools with
larger classes, which make the individual, tailored instruction that at-risk
students need very difficult to come by. President Obama would never send his
children to schools without small classes
and great teachers—at-risk children
need this kind of environment more than anyone.
3.
Fully
resourced schools: The Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
(STEM) education we seek—and physical education our children need—require
properly-equipped laboratories, libraries, and gymnasiums in every school. Even
before the recession, schools serving low-income communities were less likely
to have these “amenities.” Now a growing number of districts view these basic
academic necessities as extras and are
stripping them from their budgets. We are certainly not going to produce
learners and workers who are ready to thrive in a 21
st century economy if they haven’t
experimented with test tubes, played in organized teams, or conducted
sophisticated Internet-based research.
2.
An
enriching, holistic curriculum: Stop the madness! We say we
want more STEM majors, creative thinkers, students who are college and career
ready, and fewer obese children. It is hard to imagine how making everything
contingent on math and reading test scores–
resulting in neglect of science, arts, music, critical
thinking, and elimination of recess—can do anything but ensure that we’ll achieve exactly none of those
goals. Policies that provide all children with a holistic, enriching
education—and that minimize an emphasis on standardized testing—would do far
more to help young people achieve their potential.
1.
National
policies that enable parents, families, and communities to provide children
with what they need to thrive educationally. As the fiscal
cliff looms, revenue and spending decisions affect not only on our nation’s
budget, but our children’s educational and life prospects. The Earned Income
Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, WIC, SNAP (food stamps), Medicaid,
housing vouchers, and other federal programs that might seem unrelated to schooling
enhance children’s ability to succeed. You can speak out to protect these
vital investments
here.
Struggling families
have a lot at stake if Congress fails to act by the end of the year. Without
congressional action, vital expansions to tax credits for working families and
federal emergency unemployment insurance benefits will expire at the end of the
year. Not only that, but automatic cuts to human needs programs such as job
training, early education, and nutrition assistance for mothers and infants are
also scheduled to take effect in January 2013.
Congress has already begun debating whether to extend the
expiring provisions and how to address or avert the pending budget cuts that
are set to automatically begin early next year.
It’s imperative that, as Congress deliberates, it only
considers proposals that protect low-income and vulnerable people, promote job
creation so all of us can share in restored economic growth, and increase
revenues from fair sources. The fact that tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans
are set to expire must also be taken into consideration.
Urge your members of Congress to continue unemployment
insurance benefits and the tax credits that help working families. Ask them to
let the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire so we can pay down our
deficit and make the investments we need to lift all Americans up. And urge
them to avert the automatic across-the-board cuts to human needs programs—with
so many families and children struggling, we can’t afford to cut the services
helping them make ends meet.
Weigh in with your members of Congress today and ask them to
protect low-income Americans in the deficit and tax debate. Now is the time to
make your voice heard.
The insight I’ve from e-news letter about the top 10 education policy wishes is the intended and unintended challenges of ECE seems
to be growing. When there are different
types of immigrants coming to U.S. A person who has been an immigrant in this country for a long time will have had different experiences and hence a different identity from a newer arrival although we often tend to talk of them as 'immigrants' as if this gives a clear description of them and their experiences (Smidt, 2006) How can professionals
find the main root of families’ issues? Sometime, it’s cultural, belief,
values, ethic, or maybe a community ways of thinking. I do believe life does sift, carve, and sometimes
become unbalance. Most immigrants want
to keep their cultural, beliefs while trying to keep up with the America’s trend.
If they truly want to see progress of the American dream they must let go of
their own.
