I finally received my first subscription to the Zero to Three Newsletter via email, so I wanted to review some of the topics covered in this month's edition. Ironically, the first topic of discussion is about the recent budget cuts to Head Start program funding by about a quarter. McCartney states in her article Cutting Head Start is bad fiscal policy that 218,000 poor children will be dropped from the program and 55,000 Head Start program workers will lose their job (2011). I thought this tied back to the discussions we’ve been posting this week in regards to the need to provide financial support to early childhood education.
In 2010, the country invested more than $7 billion to prepare poor preschoolers for school success. This is a lot of money, but there is ample evidence that early childhood education more than pays for itself (McCartney, 2011).
James Heckman’s research through the University of Chicago shows evidence that "waiting until age 5 to begin formal education is too late for disadvantaged children as we miss the opportunity to build on success" (McCartney, 2011). Although I am not directly involved in a Head Start program in my professional role in education, I do feel like the challenges of funding cuts are affecting more programs and I should be aware of ongoing trends throughout the field of education.
Another topic in the Zero to Three Newsletter discussed one particular effect of cutting was discussed in an article titled Cutting Kindergarten. There are approximately 85,000 students enrolled in kindergarten in the state of Pennsylvania and 75 percent are in full-day programs funded by ABG grants, according to Kathy Geller Myers, communication director for PA Promise for Children (Alexander, 2011). With talk of eliminating the ABG grants, it’s quite possible that these programs are at risk of being cut as a result of funding losses. Considering the number of students this full-day kindergarten program serves alone is a significant piece of care lost in the PA schools. Our facility happens to have a full-day kindergarten class as well as a PM enrichment class for those kindergartners that attend an AM program at the public schools. The fact that the state is considering cutting grant funding that support other full-day programs indicates a trend of less kindergarten opportunities available and parents will begin to look toward other program options. The political and economic force behind this decision to remove ABG grants for full-day kindergarten in PA schools certainly displays the power that government law has on education at the early childhood level.
References
Alexander, Amanda. (2011). Cutting Kindergarten. Sun Gazette. Retrieved from http://www.sungazette.com/page/content.detail/id/561624/Cutting-kindergarten.html
McCartney, Kathleen. (2011). Cutting Head Start is bad fiscal policy. CNN. Retrieved from http://articles.cnn.com/2011-03-14/opinion/mccartney.head.start_1_early-childhood-education-poor-children-single-best-investment?_s=PM:OPINION
This for sure is the big topic in Early childhood. The information is out there that the early years are the most important years yet, the cuts keep coming. I guess we as early childhood professionals need to make our voices louder to the right people. I know that families and young children will be affected, but what about the people working in the field, which will also affect the economy adding to unemployment. Is cutting early childhood funding something that will really be the best for the economy in the long. The teachers may lose their jobs, parents have to stay home because they have no childcare raising the poverty rates and children don't have the best outcomes in the long run because they don't have quality early childcare. What is the government doing? Are they really thinking outcomes? I don't think so.
ReplyDeleteHi Caitlin,
ReplyDeleteIt is so unfortunate that budget cuts and lack of funding create such negative outcomes for the early childhood education system-and ultimately on children! You mentioned the number of children that will be affected in Pennsylvania...this is a huge number and other states are facing this too so imagine how many children, families, and professionals this is affecting! Like you and Gloria above said, there is so much research that supports early childhood education...yet sadly the cuts keep coming. Thanks for sharing the information you found; I agree that even if our programs aren't directly affected by the budget cuts it is still important to know what is going on in the field and what we can do to work towards fixing it.
Hello Caitlin,
ReplyDeleteThis is very sad. Cutting funds on education is going to affect the returns that is been expected in the future. This children are our future. The truth of this matter is ,it is not only Early childhood programs that is been affected. The public school systems too are cutting funds .Thanks for the information.
Olufemi.