President Obama: High Quality Pre-K Is "Good Bang for your Educational Buck"
President Barack Obama delivers remarks on early education and his
plan to ensure high-quality preschool for every child, at the Decatur
Community Recreation Center in Decatur, Ga., Feb. 14, 2013.
(Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Obama laid out a plan for reigniting the true engine of America’s economic growth:
a thriving, growing, rising middle class. A key component of that plan
is making sure that every American has the skills they need for the
competitive global job market, which means that education must begin at
the earliest possible age.
The President proposed working with states like Georgia to make high-quality preschool available to every child in America,
and today he paid a visit to that state to see firsthand how the
programs they have put in place are making a difference in the lives of
our youngest citizens:
Study after study shows that the earlier a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road. But here’s the thing: We are not doing enough to give all of our kids that chance. The kids we saw today that I had a chance to spend time with in Mary's classroom, they're some of the lucky ones -- because fewer than 3 in 10 four-year-olds are enrolled in a high-quality preschool program.Most middle-class parents can’t afford a few hundred bucks a week for private preschool. And for the poor children who need it the most, the lack of access to a great preschool education can have an impact on their entire lives. And we all pay a price for that. And as I said, this is not speculation. Study after study shows the achievement gap starts off very young. Kids who, when they go into kindergarten, their first day, if they already have a lot fewer vocabulary words, they don’t know their numbers and their shapes and have the capacity for focus, they're going to be behind that first day. And it's very hard for them to catch up over time.
President Obama visited College Heights Early Childhood Learning
Center in Decatur, where 200 children are spending full days in
classrooms staffed by highly qualified teachers who focus on interactive
learning, math, writing, and storytelling -- the kind of program the
President said offers "good bang for your educational buck."
On Tuesday night, the White House launched a new tool
that enables Americans to find the passages in the President's speech
that highlight the issues they believe are most important, and then
offers the chance to let us know why. And improving opportunities for
early education for all Americans is an issue that has seen a passionate
support from people who wrote in.
President Barack Obama joins in a music program with the students at
the College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center in Decatur, Ga.,
Feb. 14, 2013.
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
As Amy, who lives near Decatur and described herself as a
prospective teacher, told us, "We can't ever forget that having educated
citizens will have a positive impact on our country's quality of life
for years to come. Too often education is pushed to the side because
it's problems seem overwhelming, but we can't stop working to give all
of our students the high level of education that they deserve."
President Barack Obama visits a pre-kindergarten classroom at the College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center in Decatur, Ga., Feb. 14, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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