Early Education Clips for Week of October 13-17
Here’s a sampling of early childhood education in the news this week:
TOP STORY
White House Targets “Word Gap” Among Low-Income Children By the age of five, children from low-income homes will have heard 30 million fewer words than children from middle and upper-income homes. To bridge that gap, the White House Office on Science and Technology, in partnership with Too Small To Fail, hosted a conference for lawmakers, scientists and advocates to share strategies and best practices. At Thursday’s conference, the Obama Administration announced a new $2 million initiative for research and technology to address the word gap.
Read More:
Poor Kids are Starving for Words – The Atlantic
White House to Announce $2 Million Study on Early Learning – U.S. News & World Report
White House Wants Poor Parents to Speak More to Kids – TIME
OTHER NATIONAL NEWS
State Lawmakers Showing Support for Early Childhood Education A new survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) shows increased funding for early education programs by state lawmakers. This year has also seen an increase in the number of bills introduced and passed at the state level to expand access to early learning. Read More at Ed Central.
Hillary Clinton, American Academy of Pediatrics Release Early Learning Toolkit for Health Care Providers Noting the connection between early literacy and health outcomes for children, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a toolkit to help parents speak, read and sing to their children from birth. The toolkit, called “Books Build Connections” will be made available to pediatricians to share with their patients. The toolkit was unveiled at an event this week featuring former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Read More at Education Week.
FROM THE STATES
LOUISIANA: Governor Gives Support to State’s Federal Preschool Grant Application Republican Governor Bobby Jindal announced this week that he would support the Louisiana Department of Education’s application for up to $15 million in Race to the Top Preschool Development Grants. Read More.
GEORGIA: New Poll Shows Early Education a Powerful Election Issue A new poll released on Monday by the Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students (GEEARS) Georgia voters found major support for investments in early learning that cuts across party lines. Read More.
MONTANA: Governor Proposes New Pre-K Plan Montana’s Democratic Governor Steve Bullock announced a $37 million proposal to provide public pre-K to 4-year-olds in the state. Montana is one of just eight states with no state-funded preschool program. Read More.
WASHINGTON: Panel Touts Benefits of Early Education A panel of prominent brain scientists joined Seattle Mayor Ed Murray to discuss the importance of early childhood education. Seattle voters will consider two preschool measures on the ballot this November. Read More.
PENNSYLVANIA: Legislators, Teachers and Police Push Pre-K for PA At a campaign workshop last week, sate elected officials joined law enforcement officers, teachers and advocates to support Pre-K for PA, an initiative to expand pre-K programs for Pennsylvania children. Read More.