By Delia Pompa, Senior Vice President, Programs
There was a time in this country when investing in kids was not only the right thing to do—it was also an easy decision to make. Deficits, debt, inflation, recession, and other economic challenges have always been part of our national discourse, but we’ve never skimped on a high-quality education for our nation. We’re now in danger of making that mistake.
Unfortunately, in this austere economic climate, education spending is often characterized as a frivolous use of taxpayer dollars that flies in the face of limited government and prevents communities from exerting local control. A quick survey of the news from various state governments confirms the national mood over which of our priorities to fund. Consider Texas, for example, where the legislature is about to slash $4 billion from school districts all over the state. Or Michigan, where the new governor, Rick Snyder, has proposed cutting millions from the state’s public education system. The situation there has become so severe that one school superintendent proposed turning his schools into prisons so that his students might benefit from the same amenities offered to inmates. His version of Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal is tongue-in-cheek, of course, but his actions underscore a very real sentiment about the future of public education in America.
Given the mood in state legislatures to gut public education, it was somewhat of a surprise, albeit a welcome one, when President Obama announced recently that his administration would invest $500 million in early childhood education with another round of Race to the Top early learning challenge grants. A good early childhood education sets the foundation for the rest of a child’s life and the Latino community especially benefits from quality early childhood education programs. However, states still have a long way to go. Latino children now constitute almost 24% of the child population in America under the age of five and are the fastest-growing subgroup of children. Yet Hispanic children are least able to access formal early care and education programs and have low levels of school readiness. In addition, it is not clear that Latino students are benefiting from the administration’s signature education policy, the first round of Race to the Top funding, when one considers that the states with large numbers of Latino students, including Texas, California, Illinois, and New Jersey, have not received funding to support needed education reforms. These new grants must be designed in a way to reach children in those states.
Our country may be mired in fights over deficit reduction, but when it comes to early childhood education, the administration has made clear its commitment and should be commended for it. There is an opportunity to do some very good work, especially for Latinos, but it must be done right in order to maximize potential. NCLR has laid out some critical recommendations for doing this in our white paper, Responding to the Needs of Young Latino Children: State Efforts to Build Comprehensive Learning Systems, which should be applied as criteria for states that receive Race to the Top funds. Those include requiring states to improve services provided to young English language learners and incentivizing states to do right by and for Hispanic children and families.
This was originally published on the National Journal's "Ask the Experts" Education blog.