Early childhood education advocates could see promising activities on Capitol Hill in the upcoming 111th Congress, given President-elect Obama’s education initiatives and a slew of new faces headed to Congress who’ve had early ed records or pledged to support federal investment in preschool programs, according to this blog from the New America Foundation.
This is good news for NSBA’s Pre-K Legislative Committee, which will gear up for a potentially exciting session in Congress. Some of the new Senators mentioned in the blog include: Virginia‘s Mark Warner, who expanded the state’s preschool initiatives as governor; Nebraska‘s Mike Johanns, who as governor increased funding for pre-K; New Hampshire‘s Jeanne Shaheen, who voiced support for more federal funding for state preschool programs. Her advocacy could be boosted by the fact that New Hampshire is one of only 12 states with no publicly funded pre-K programs.
Giving young children opportunities and experiences they may not otherwise have is very important. I am, however, concerned with my state (California) being involved. They have already sucked the life out of K-12 education. I don’t want to see this same political agenda taken down to preschool. I would be excited to see all children being given the opportunity to have an appropriate preschool experience. But with NCLB and “is the students learning?” so prevelant in education right now I’d rather not have any preschool than what i see happening if state education boards get involved.