Early education: The route to a rewarding future
Last week, when U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine dropped in on the Head Start program at the Original Walker–Grant School in Fredericksburg, perhaps he granted himself a moment of reflection as he engaged the young children in their learning environment.
Sixty years earlier, Virginia’s priority had been to resist public school desegregation. Now, he had the opportunity to not only partake of this setting of welcomed cultural diversity, but also to see the fruit of his labor as a longtime champion of early childhood education.
Kaine can be optimistic about the government’s commitment to early education. The just-passed federal omnibus appropriations bill includes $9.2 billion for Head Start—$570 million more than the current year—and an increase as well for Early Head Start. Together, the programs serve children from low-income families from infancy through age 5. In addition, states including Virginia will share $250 million to continue the Preschool Development Grants program to bolster high-quality early learning programs.
Earlier this month, Congress approved and President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, which Kaine had a key role in shaping and which passed both chambers of Congress with overwhelming support.
It dismantles the federal bureaucratic controls over state education policies began under the George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind, which itself was a rewrite of the first Elementary and Secondary Education Act. When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the measure in 1965, initiating the Head Start program, the era of Massive Resistance in Virginia was finally relegated to the dustbin of history.
This series of laws has become a family tree of federal education legislation that garners broad congressional support with each new generation. From the beginning, these laws were designed to ensure that a good public education be available to all children no matter their racial or socioeconomic background.
The periodic revisions are needed to rectify the flaws that can emerge in legislation over time while updating it to pursue new goals—including the expansion of early childhood education.
Though Sen. Kaine, who as governor in 2008 backed a $22 million proposal to make pre-K education more accessible to at-risk 4-year-olds in Virginia, is no doubt pleased with this emphasis on the importance of early education, he would be the first to point out that much work remains to be done.
The word is out, from study after study, that pre-school gives kids a better chance for success in school for years to come and sets the stage for a more rewarding careers and productive lives. This is particularly important for kids whose parents are unable to provide them with an enriching early childhood environment.
For those who find accountability in dollars and cents, early childhood education is a solid investment. In the study “Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public Return,” a senior Federal Reserve Bank official puts the payoff, after inflation, at 12 percent. That’s a solid rate of return anywhere.
Most people would say that the likelihood of a happier, more productive and rewarding life is payoff enough.
