Evie’s Desk: Presidential Early Education Plan

In the wake of the country's most exciting election in history, many early childhood education groups have approached the new President-elect Barak Obama and his team to find out how their world will change under his leadership. Obama has said that education is an issue close to his heart and that he wants to increase spending on early childhood education by $10 billion annually. I was interested to find out more about his plans and how they may affect our community.

Although these initiatives were pre-election and pre-financial crisis, I thought I would share what is mentioned on his Web site as a quick primer on what we may expect as a community. Below are the three key approaches quoted directly from the Web site:

• Zero to Five Plan: The Obama-Biden comprehensive "Zero to Five" plan will provide critical support to young children and their parents. Unlike other early childhood education plans, the Obama-Biden plan places key emphasis at early care and education for infants which is essential for children to be ready to enter kindergarten. Obama and Biden will create Early Learning Challenge Grants to promote state "zero to five" efforts and help states move toward voluntary, universal preschool.

• Expand Early Head Start and Head Start: Obama and Biden will greatly expand Early Head Start, increase Head Start funding and improve quality for both.

• Affordable, High-Quality Child Care: Obama and Biden will also provide affordable and high-quality child care to ease the burden on working families.

Evelyn V. Martinez
Executive Director
First 5 LA

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