Last week, advocates for early childhood education lamented the loss of the Early Learning Challenge Fund, President Barack Obama’s competitive grant proposal to boost early learning. The $8 billion dollar bill got stripped out of the agreement over health care and student lending.
It appears that the grants may be back, according to Early Education Watch.
U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said at a hearing in Washington D.C. on Wednesday that there must be a way to get it in the budget cycle, and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan concurred.
Any money for early childhood, however, will depend on a budget agreement, and the April 15 deadline appears to have come and gone without one. Advocates, meanwhile, are wasting no time: Pre-K Now has asked supporters to let lawmakers know that high quality pre-kindergarten is the f irst step to education reform.
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at 6:44 pm
The ELCF promised a long overdue coordinated systems approach to Early Childhood Education that could have a long-lasting profound effect on the future of our children. How can this not be a priority? It is the future of our country.