A few weeks ago, the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) released their annual “The State Of Preschool” report and found that funding per-student for preschool had reached its lowest point in a decade.
NPR’s Michel Martin sat down with NIEER’s director, Steve Barnett to talk about this discouraging trend.
When asked about the long-term impact reducing opportunities for kids is going to have long-term on their educational systems Barnett replied:
“If you look where the benefits come from, they’re really cost savings because we’re correcting problems that we have now from not investing enough.
When children in many urban communities start 18 months behind, at kindergarten, that sets them on a path to school failure. They’re going to repeat grades. They’ll need special education that they could otherwise do fine without. They’re more likely to drop out of school, they’re more likely to get involved with crime.
Investing in early education is not a blue or red issue; it’s an economic issue. It’s a Virginia issue. Every Virginian has something at stake. If we don’t invest in early education, taxpayers will bear the burden.
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