As federal economic recovery funds become available, I hope California policy-makers will act quickly to secure them, and spend them wisely on a vital ingredient for ensuring our current and future prosperity: caring for and educating our young children.
San Diego's reputation as a thriving center of technology and entrepreneurship relies on a culture of innovation that is driven by our work force. To remain competitive in the global marketplace, we must find ways to better educate our work force, and that means laying a strong foundation in children's early years.
The economic stimulus act helps do that by investing in Head Start, Early Head Start, child care and preschool expansion as part of public education funding for low-income children and special education students. President Obama's recent budget outline calls it a “down payment” on his plan to increase access to high-quality early care and education.
These funds will provide immediate economic benefits to San Diego by creating and preserving jobs in the early care and education sector. And the benefits will be much more deeply felt: These investments in early learning will also improve employees' productivity and performance, and reduce turnover and absenteeism by allowing parents to go to work knowing their children are in safe and nurturing environments. And they will help other parents who are out of a job to re-enter the work force.
In addition to the economic recovery funds, California also stands to benefit from President Obama's long-term commitment to investing in early care and education. As his recent budget outline states, “the administration will broaden the reach of these programs and boost their quality-encouraging new investment, a seamless delivery of services and better information for parents about program options and quality.” As home to 13 percent of the nation's children under age 5, California must be prepared to take advantage of these new opportunities, and to make a case for the resources our children need and deserve.
Here in San Diego, those resources can be put to critical use. Our region's future economic prosperity rests on expanding our skilled work force and growing high-wage industries and infrastructure to support a globally connected community. Currently, even in a recession, the region needs more skilled employees than are available.
This demand is projected to grow, and increasing access to high-quality early education is one proven way to close that deficit and meet the business community's demand for a work force that has the appropriate skills and training.
Research shows that children's brains develop rapidly during the early years of life, providing a critical window of opportunity to lay the foundation for later learning. High-quality preschool capitalizes on children's love of learning, instills important pre-literacy skills and builds confidence. In preschool, children learn to accept new responsibilities, pay attention when someone else is talking and cooperate – all skills that will serve them well as they enter kindergarten classrooms and beyond.
In preschool, children develop pre-math skills such as understanding the difference between more and less, bigger and smaller, and longer and shorter – setting the stage for concepts such as addition and subtraction that they will need to master in elementary school. Preschool also cultivates budding young scientists who measure sand in the sandbox, test to see if objects float or sink in water, and draw connections between cause and effect.