For 3-year-old Benjamin Delmonico and his mom, the Skaneateles Nursery School is a godsend.
“Socialization is huge,” said mom Mary Delmonico, who serves on the nursery school board. “I think any type of early intervention is great, in terms of just getting a jumpstart on letters and sounds, learning to play with other kids, and learning how a school setting actually is — even if it’s only for a couple hours a day.”
Benjamin Delmonico is one of 100,243 children in New York and 2,035 in Onondaga County enrolled in a pre-kindergarten program, according to the New York State Education Department. And, say advocates of early childhood education, many more children and their parents need the same opportunities.
Consider these statistics:
- About 11 million children in America under the age of 5 have a need for childcare programs, according to Child Care Aware. It is a national program in Washington, D.C., that helps families locate childcare programs in their communities.
- Most of these kids have working parents and spend at least 35 hours in the care of someone each week, according to Child Care Aware.
- About 28 percent of America’s 4-year-olds are enrolled in a state-funded preschool program, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research. The institute, out of New Brunswick, N.J., provides independent research on early childhood education.
- In New York, slightly more than 1.1 million children are younger than 5, according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau.
- That means only 8.8 percent of New York’s children are in pre-kindergarten programs.
The nation needs to expand and strengthen its pre-k programs, say advocates, because studies show those programs prepare young children to do well in kindergarten and in school. For example, research shows that young children’s first learning experiences can have powerful long-term effects on their intellectual and emotional development, school achievement and later life outcomes.
In addition, advocates say, pre-k programs need minimum federal standards to ensure consistent quality nationally. In many cases, parents have no guarantee of safety and quality because each state has varying standards, says Nick Vucic, senior policy associate for Child Care Aware.
“When you’re not meeting basic health and safety requirements or you don’t even have those requirements to meet,” Vucic said, “it’s very hard to know what type of early learning is going on in these settings.”
The U.S. has two major federal programs for early childhood education: Head Start and the Child Care and Development Block Grant. Head Start began in 1965 to give preschoolers from low-income families emotional, social, nutritional and psychological help. In the 2011 to 2012 year in New York, about 51,696 children and pregnant women were enrolled in Head Start programs.
The other national effort is the Child Care and Development Block Grant, created in 1990 to pay for childcare services to low-income family members who work, attend school, or whose children receive or need child care services.
Now, Congress is considering measures to expand early childhood education programs and tighten regulations of them. Two measures have strong support from New York lawmakers, Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, a Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna, R-Barneveld. Those measures are:
- Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2013
The bi-partisan bill was introduced in the Senate in June by Gillibrand and Republicans Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Richard Burr of North Carolina and Tom Harkin of Indiana.
It would extend the life of the Child Care and Development Block Grant program that was last reauthorized in 1996. It would require states to run comprehensive background checks for child care workers, to inspect programs at least once before licensing and have orientation and professional development training for child care workers.
A full Senate vote has not been scheduled.
- The “Strong Start for America’s Children Act”
The bi-partisan bill was introduced on Nov. 13 by Hanna of Barneveld; U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif.; Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. Hanna is co-chair of the House Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education Caucus.
The bill aims to create a 10-year initiative to expand and improve early learning opportunities for children from birth to age 5. It would affect nearly 20 million children, according to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce website.
The bill would establish a new federal-state partnership to fund preschool for 4-year-olds from families who earn below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. The federal government defines poverty as a yearly income of $23,550 for a family of four. The bill would require states to match the federal funding.
The majority of Americans support quality early childhood programs, second only to increasing jobs and economic growth, said Renee Gamela, press secretary for Rep. Hanna.
At a press conference when he unveiled the proposed legislation in November, Hanna said, “By focusing on early education we can begin to break the back of intergenerational poverty, producing more taxpayers and a more competitive America through a better-educated, growing middle class.” He added, “One in four children starts their life in poverty. This bill will help ensure their lives do not end in poverty.”
For her part, Mary Delmonico of Skaneateles praises efforts to expand early childhood education.
“My oldest son went for two years to preschool, my middle son currently goes to preschool. He does the three mornings a week program,” Delmonico said, who also has a 22-month-old son. “And my baby, once he’s able to, will definitely be going as well.”
(Elizabeth Beeson is a graduate student in broadcast and digital journalism.)
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