Early childhood education is the key to giving Idaho’s youth a running start in school. If we want to have an educated workforce and a successful economy in the future, we have to start by investing in early childhood education. Luckily, Idaho just made a step in the right direction.
For the very first time, Idaho was given the opportunity by the Governor to apply for a federal Preschool Development Grant. The state of Idaho was awarded a $3.3 million grant to strengthen existing early childhood education programs! The Association for the Education of Young Children (Idaho AEYC) will take the lead on implementing grant money by improving school readiness and focusing on early literacy. The Idaho legislature will be working closely with Idaho AEYC to ensure that we are making impactful, cost-effective investments in early childhood education.
Idahoans are desperate for better early learning options for their children and this grant will provide the opportunity to build up existing programs. Creating accessible resources for parents is essential to the success of early childhood education. In order to create a repository where parents can access all the resources and programs available to them, we must first create an Early Childhood Advisory council that supports the work of preschool development. The advisory council would be necessary to make decisions about the most appropriate use of the grant money and to evaluate the success of where the funds are invested.
The first order of business for the Early Childhood Advisory council would be to gather data to decide where resources are needed. Idaho needs to know if kids have been in preschool and what other resources they have used before entering school to see where we need to direct development efforts. Parents need access to resources from the beginning which means providing information that is easily accessible as soon as a child is born.
The Early Childhood Advisory Council will be the best way to allocate the resources from the Preschool Development Grant to make sure that all Idaho parents have access to early learning resources. Building statewide data will help us to identify the needs of children across the state while an accessible platform for parents to find the resources their children need to get off to a running start. Both of these things in tandem with the further development of existing early education programs will improve school readiness and strengthen early literacy outcomes. It takes a village to raise Idaho’s children so we must work with families, communities and early childhood professionals to ensure every child and parent has access to the resources they need.
Idaho’s AEYC is excited to take the lead implementing this $3.3 million dollar grant. Idaho’s children deserve the best opportunities that we can offer and the Early Childhood Advisory Council is the next step in strengthening early childhood education. We have been given a historical opportunity to make a meaningful investment in the trajectory of our children’s education. The wins and losses in our education system touch every aspect of our state’s overall success. When our young children start their education off with adequate resources to achieve their goals, we all benefit.