We Must Not Leave Them Wanting: Extension of Remarks

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I would like to put this important piece on early-childhood education into the Congressional Record. Its author is Jack Bailer, an outstanding Maryland educator and President of the Judith P. Hoyer Foundation, which promotes early-childhood education for Maryland's at-risk children.

WE MUST NOT LEAVE THEM WANTING
By Jack Bailer

``For Want of a Nail'' is a proverbial verse showing that actions--or inactions--which may seem insignificant can often have significant consequences:

For want of a nail, the shoe was lost.

For want of a shoe, the horse was lost.

For want of a horse, the rider was lost.

For want of a rider, the battle was lost.

For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost.

And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

I suggest we could draw a strong parallel between the nail in the verse and a young child's having (or not having) the benefit of one or two years' participation in an early childhood (pre-kindergarten) education program.

Two examples of such programs would be ``Head Start'' and Maryland's 25 ``Judy Hoyer Family Education Centers,'' aka ``Judy Centers.'' The Judy Centers offer early education for children from birth through five years of age. They also arrange for many other services to be provided to these children and their families--either located on site year-round, or brought in on a visiting basis as needed.

The primary candidates for these programs are three- and four-year-old children who are in home environments often referred to as ``economically and/or culturally disadvantaged.'' This includes those who get little or no exposure to learning about the world around them, as well as those families where little or no English is spoken.

Lacking experience in an early learning program, these children will enter kindergarten with a very low level of ``readiness to learn.''

You may ask, what is the difference between ``readiness to learn'' and actual learning? Sesame Street provides many examples throughout its episodes. Here are just two:

When Grover gets out of breath repeatedly running back and forth from off in the distance yelling ``This is far,'' to face-in-the-camera panting ``This is NEAR,'' the child viewer learns the concept of Near vs. Far.

When we see one of their spots with the song, ``One of these things is not like the others; three of these things are kind of the same,'' the child learns the concept of Same vs. Different.

If you'd like more examples, ask any early childhood education professional and they'll give you many, all falling under one or more of seven domains: Social Personal; Language; Mathematical Thinking; Physical Development; Scientific Thinking; Social Studies; The Arts.

For a child who has not had the pre-kindergarten opportunity to achieve a ``readiness to learn'' so essential for a successful K-12 experience, the sequence of consequences could look something like this:

Grades K-3: For want of having acquired few if any readiness-to-learn experiences prior to kindergarten, a child doesn't get the full value of what the teacher is saying. And often neither the child nor the teacher realizes that a point made by the teacher is missed because the child is lacking the benefit of an earlier learning experience.

Grades 4-6: For want of the cumulative effects of full value of instruction because of a weaker K-3 foundation, student progress during this period is further diminished--especially in reading comprehension.

Grades 7-8: For want of reading skills which even approach grade level, in the face of an increased need to be able to read to learn, the student slips further behind.

Grades 9-10: For want of reading and learning skills which would make school interesting and satisfying, the student becomes increasingly disconnected from class work and school in general. The student shows up less and less frequently, and even then it is more to be around their friends than to go to class.

Grades 11-12: For want of any further interest in or hope of ever catching up, the student drops out, drifts for a while, maybe works at a menial job, and/or ends up in the criminal justice system.

This discouraging sequence is not an exaggeration. Longitudinal studies have been done--the most notable being the Chicago school system study. That study tracked two groups of students for over 20 years. One group had a strong beginning with the benefit of a pre-kindergarten readiness-to-learn experience. The other group did not.

By the time both groups were well beyond high school age, nearly all of those in the group with early childhood education were clearly on their way to living successful, productive lives. Sadly, most of those in the other group were not.

As for societal and budgetary impacts, one study showed that, for every one dollar spent on pre-kindergarten preparation for learning, seven dollars are saved on government spending for public safety, the justice system, and the prison system.

In the years ahead we will continue to face tough choices among priorities competing for limited public funds. I believe that over-arching all of these is the critical need to give every young child a preparation for learning upon which to grow intellectually for the rest of their lives. Among the benefits we get are: A more highly skilled workforce; A highly employable work force; An increase in workers contributing to the tax base; A decreasing percentage of our population who fall into the justice system; A higher quality of life for all.

What can you do to make a difference?

Contact your local school board members and superintendent and urge them to fully fund early childhood (pre-kindergarten) education for all children in your jurisdiction who need it.

Insist that the system determine how many children in your district currently need to be in a readiness-to-learn environment--but are not.

Continue following up to see that, using these data, the school system creates and implements an action plan to reallocate funds as necessary, and to deal with staffing, space, and other issues to get all those children into the system by opening of school next year, or the following year at the latest.

Clearly the increased funding for this will be a challenge. Nevertheless, if our nation is to survive and thrive, we simply must do this. We must not leave behind a single child who may have succeeded in life, but for want of an early childhood education which got them ready to learn. We must not risk the loss of our nation, for want of giving this our most urgent attention.

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