Advancing Opportunity Through Early Learning
By Katharine B. Stevens
ESSAY
American Enterprise Institute — “An Education Agenda for 2016”
June 24, 2015
“It’s easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” —Frederick Douglass
America has long counted on its public schools to level the playing field for disadvantaged children and build the success of future generations. Yet today, despite ever-increasing spending on schools, disadvantaged children seem to be falling ever further behind. After decades of unsuccessful attempts to improve K–12 schools, we need new ways to keep the American dream alive to ensure a fair chance for all children, no matter who their parents are or what circumstances they’re born into.
Early care and learning programs that help disadvantaged infants, toddlers, and preschoolers get a decent start in life are an especially promising strategy to ensure that all children have a chance to succeed. Done right, this approach has extraordinary potential as a bipartisan solution to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty and advance opportunity for all children.
But despite growing state-level consensus on the importance of early learning, it has largely remained a Democrat-specific issue in Washington. And ceding the terrain to a single party is a mistake, both politically and for the American people. If early learning moves forward as a partisan issue, it will be driven by politics rather than good policy. If both parties engage constructively, we’re far more likely to develop solid programs that truly help kids.
Our country needs thoughtful, effective leadership to realize the promise of this increasingly important field. What’s called for now is to target funding at what really works for children, strengthen existing federal programs rather than create new bureaucracies, and promote research and innovation to raise the bar for action…
See Also
Op-Ed ~ March 9, 2015
Op-Ed ~ September 1, 2015
Policy Brief ~ June 4, 2018