Posted on

Keeping Our Eyes on Both Birds in Early Childhood Education

**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.** A guest post by Jack McCarthy There is a growing consensus in the United States that early childhood education is important. The newest Education Commission of the States report highlighted that “total state funding for preschool programs increased by $767 million in the 2014-15 fiscal year to a total of nearly $7 billion.” It’s the …

Continue reading “Keeping Our Eyes on Both Birds in Early Childhood Education”

Posted on

Why preschool is a necessity, not a luxury

A guest column by Jonathan Gillentine America needs high quality preschool programs to help address achievement and opportunity gaps affecting young children. In communities with extensive needs, these children and their families have few options for essential learning experiences that set a foundation for success in school. Recently Congress has put forward bills that will eliminate Federal Preschool Development Grants, which since 2014 have helped 18 states establish new public preschool classrooms and have added supports to existing programs in communities that have the highest needs. Why is preschool so important? As a preschool teacher with over 20 years of experience, …

Continue reading “Why preschool is a necessity, not a luxury”

Posted on

Here Are 4 of My Thoughts on Whether Universal Pre-K is Necessary

In his State of the Union address, President Obama brought up the topic of universal Pre-Kindergarten learning and praised the programs already in place in states like Florida, South Carolina and New Jersey. He connected Pre-K initiatives to his Race to the Top program that has the lofty goal of making the U.S. the worldwide leader in college attendees and graduates. His administration claims that the academic skill sets needed to reach that goal must have their foundation before Kindergarten and that the responsibility for that lies in public funding. But is this true? Here are my thoughts from an …

Continue reading “Here Are 4 of My Thoughts on Whether Universal Pre-K is Necessary”