Using Preschool to Close the Education Gap

Transcript

GOVERNOR MARK WARNER: It seems to me that the data is absolutely clear that, from an investment standpoint, from a brain-development standpoint, from a policy directive standpoint, there are few places where we can get a better return than early childhood initiatives. I always get a little--as somebody who came to this issue with more focus on kind of K-12 and higher ed, it's an area that I've had to get up to speed, beyond the fact that I've got three almost perfect daughters, some days.

But one of the things that strikes me is that early childhood initiatives cut across so many different policy areas that trying to have an organized governmental response, at least at the state level, is oftentimes challenging. I think when we think about early childhood it means different things to different folks. To some folks, early childhood means early education--how do we make sure that we prepare that child for school. For others, we think about early childhood issues related around childcare, both in terms of access and the quality of childcare. Then there's a whole other universe of folks where, I think, when they hear the term "early childhood," often think in terms of health care related initiatives.

In my mind, these three silos--childcare, education, and health care--need to be more merged together. And that is going to take, again, some creativity and, hopefully, some ideas here from the audience.

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