Invest early in America's children
Political opposites aim to bridge the partisan divide on a cause they say is crucial to equal opportunity.
The two of us have a lot in common. We’re fathers, former legislators, and share a deep love for our country. But in Congress we rarely agreed on policy solutions to the challenges facing the nation.
America is home to the world’s largest economy and most powerful military. She is blessed with tremendous natural resources and agricultural wealth and can boast great industrial power. But our most valuable national asset is the tens of millions of children who will shape America’s destiny. We both believe that ensuring our kids get a good start in life is essential.
We are convinced that supporting early childhood development is an issue that can unite both political parties. It’s also an area where Congress can begin immediately to work with the Trump administration to support the needs and aspirations of working families: a group our political system has neglected for far too long. The recent election results demonstrate that the Washington political establishment needs to recalibrate its focus. Research is clear that brain development in the earliest years is hugely influential on a child’s long-term success and health. We now know that effective interventions like high quality early learning programs and parent-focused programs can make a real difference in the lives of children and families. Yet many children arrive at kindergarten without the skills they need to succeed in school. And children who arrive at school behind their peers tend to stay behind.
Because a child’s experiences during the earliest years will shape future success and well-being, dedicating resources to the healthy development of young children should be a key part of any comprehensive economic growth strategy to equip our future workforce with the skills needed in a competitive global economy. In fact, research has shown that investments in early childhood development produce a higher return on the dollar than later investments.
This is one reason why Congress, governors, and mayors make significant investments in early childhood development. Congress funds two main programs — Head Start, a program to support early learning, and the Child Care and Development Block Grant, a program focused on making child care more affordable for some families. All but eight states currently fund programs that provide some four-year-olds with access to one year of preschool before entering kindergarten. Notably, many of these states are led by fiscally conservative Republican governors and have Republican-controlled legislatures, demonstrating the broad appeal of these programs. Yet even with these resources invested, serious gaps in quality and affordability persist.
The demand for early learning programs is great. More than 11 million children under age five are in some type of child care. Child care costs can make it hard for families to make ends meet. A year of child care often costs more than a year of public college and the quality of these programs is often too low to achieve the positive impacts we know are possible. Child care staff remain among the lowest wage occupations.
If our nation wants to sustain the notion of equal opportunity, we must ask some tough questions: What is needed for children and families in this rapidly changing economy? Do public policies provide what children and families need? How can child care programs provide families with high quality, affordable services? And, perhaps most importantly, how can we most effectively support the role of parents in the early development of their own children? We encourage the new Congress to explore these critical issues, beginning this week during confirmation hearings for prospective Education secretary
We are joining forces with the Bipartisan Policy Center this month to launch a new Early Childhood Initiative. Making sure all our nation’s children start the journey of life equipped for what lies ahead is central to the American ethos of equality of opportunity — the notion that America is a place where everyone, regardless of background and circumstance, has a chance at achieving success. Through our work with BPC, we also hope to demonstrate the possibility of developing meaningful solutions that can bridge political and ideological divides. We owe our children nothing less.
George Miller is a former Democratic representative from California.
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