Education As an Investment
This week I chose to review the website and newsletter of the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER). There are many articles of interests to me this week as we are discussing early childhood education being referred to as an “investment opportunity”. Some of the headlines displayed on the home page are “Head Start parents urge lawmakers to preserve funding”, “Editorial: Smarter—Boosters need plan to save preschool programs” and “Editorial: Early childhood education gets boost form business leaders”. The overall message is clear, early education programs are in danger of more budget cuts, just as business leaders and politicians are receiving information that investing in early childhood education would show major payoffs in years to come.
“Head Start parents urge lawmakers to preserve funding” an editorial in the “Billings Gazette” shares with reader s the fear of budget cuts to the Head Start program nationwide. According to the article the 2011 Appropriations Bill that has passed the House and is awaiting approval from the Senate recommends cuts to the program that would close 16,000 Head Start classrooms, and would affect 218,000 low-income children. (Kemmick, 2011) Ron Haskins, co-director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution stated that the Department of Health and Human Services completed a study last year of the Head Start program and concluded that a large number of the programs were so ineffective that “they do little or nothing to boost child development and learning”.(Kemmick, 2011) According to Haskins, President Obama has ordered a review of all Head Start programs over the next three years, those under performing programs would have to compete for funding with other early childhood programs.
This article is in direct conflict with what we have been reviewing in class this week. Research shows that quality early childhood programs are improving the success rates of children in school. Although there are budget cuts to programs instead of the funding being invested into the early childhood programs, I can appreciate that the government is researching which programs are effective prior to enforcing the budget cuts. I believe that programs that are not being providing children with quality programs to benefit their development should have their funding cut, or have to compete for the funding. Of course, I would be interested in how the researchers are determining the “success” of the programs.
In the article “Early childhood education gets boost from the business leaders”, business leaders in Oklahoma have created a coalition to promote initiatives in early childhood programs. Blake Wade, the president of the coalition Oklahoma Business Roundtable, stated that “by focusing more dollars in the early years, we stand to save millions in future tax dollars”. (World’s Editorial Writers, 2011) The business leaders agree that from an economic standpoint, early childhood education is not an instant payback. Wade states however that, “there is a huge undeniable reward; Oklahoma needs a highly skilled workforce, and that will only happen if children are prepared to learn.”
This article supports our lesson this week. Business leaders are becoming active in the education system because they are aware that the workforce has become less adequate over the years. It is in their best interest to become active in education to help educators reform the system. This discussion has led me to believe that the “all children need to feel successful” attitude that educators are forced to cater to the children today, is only hurting the students when they arrive in the workforce. This is going to be an interesting issue to see resolved. I feel “old school” education will be revived to undo the damage that “learning has to be fun” teaching we are seeing today.
The National Institute For Early Education Research.
Kemmick, Ed. Head Start Parents Urge Lawmakers to Preserve Funding. The Billings Gazette| March 25, 2011. Retrieved March 26, 2011.
World’s Editorial Writers. Early childhood education gets boost from business leaders. http://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/article.aspx?subjectid=61&articleid=20110323_61_A14_Onethi547468
Business owners are realizing that they need to become more active in education. Recently our superintended got a bus together with a whole bunch of business owners who went around to the local schools. He was trying to show the good we were doing so that they would invest money. They supposedly "randomly" picked the schools they would visit. You have to make people want to invest in education sad but true.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the wealth of valuable information! I think it is unfortunate that funding is such a big issue within the early childhood feild when children ARE our future. They are our future teachers, doctors, lawyers, politicians, leaders, and everything in between. Why would we not want to set the up for absolute success starting with a solid educational base? I am glad that Obama is going to keep a close eye on Head Start programs for the next threee years. That way, when the ineffective programs come to light, they can re-evaluate their policies and become better. And I agree that "old school" teaching methods were more effective and I hope to see them make a return!
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