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Home / Washington Business - May/June 2006 / Education: Early Learning Critical to Development |
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Education: Early Learning Critical to Development |
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Written On: May/June 2006 |
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Written By: by Ron Dalby |
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Sadly, many of our nation's children do not receive the encouragement and nurturing at home in the early years of their lives when the joy of early learning should be a minute-by-minute adventure of discovery and exploration. Thus they are woefully unprepared at age five when walking into a kindergarten class for the first time.
Washington began coming to grips with this problem when former Gov. Gary Locke created the Governor's Commission on Early Learning in 1998. He appointed a mix of business people, educators, legislators, child-care providers and parents to the commission. Among them were his wife, Mona Locke, AWB President Don Brunell and Melinda Gates. At the time, both the Lockes and the Gates had pre-school children. The commission culminated with a report to the governor and in the forming of the Foundation for Early Learning (originally it was called the Washington Early Learning Foundation) funded by a $10 million grant from the Gates Foundation.
According to Mona Locke, the foundation's mission is simple: "Make sure that every child goes to school ready to succeed in school and in life." She has chaired the foundation's board since its inception five years ago.
The commission recommended to the governor that early learning be reorganized in Washington. Research at the time showed that five different state agencies were somehow involved with early learning. Other recommendations included guidelines for kindergarten readiness. The basic premise was to make certain that children entering school for the first time were ready and able to learn.
All of these recommendations came to a head under the current administration. Robert Watt, vice president of government and community relations for Boeing, was appointed by Gov. Christine Gregoire to chair the Early Learning Committee, which was part of Washington Learns. Brunell said the efforts of this committee were instrumental in helping push the final legislation through for an officially-sanctioned early learning system for Washington.
At the end of March, Gov. Gregoire signed the bill, 2SHB 2964, which established Washington's early learning program and also created a cabinet-level Department of Early Learning. AWB supported the goals and intent of the legislation and believes consolidation of all early learning functions is key to its success.
The transition to housing all early learning programs under a single department is underway as you read this. A commissioner has not yet been named, but we can expect that to happen shortly. The department is scheduled to begin operating on July 1.
The process, though, was not completely smooth. Considerable public protest took place during the time Gov. Locke’s commission was meeting. The central objection, according to Mona Locke, was "government intervening in how parents raise their kids." KVI radio in Seattle actually waged a campaign against government interference in early learning.
These protestors almost certainly missed the point of the commission and later the foundation: Many of our children were not getting what they needed at home and something had to be done to prepare them to enter school ready to learn.
The most tangible result available now is the initial version of Early Learning and Development Benchmarks online at www.earlylearning.org. Once the page loads, click on Getting School Ready. This page provides access to the benchmarks as well as another publication called the Getting School Ready Guide. The latter is a shorter, more dynamic publication that will appeal to children as well as their parents.
Although she applauds these efforts to date, Mona Locke, now a KIRO-TV feature reporter, thinks that much more can and should be done. She notes that Washington does not even have full-day kindergarten and she believes that, "...in a perfect world, even pre-schools should be available for free to any resident in our state who would like to enroll a child in one." She also knows that the money just isn't there right now for such programs. She does feel, however, that Washington has reached the point where it can offer our children support and a brighter future regardless of their socio-economic standing and regardless of whether they live in rural or urban areas.
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