California’s Candidates for Governor Know the Number One Reason Our Children Don’t Succeed

By: Karla Pleitez Howell, Director of Educational Equity and Khydeeja Alam Javid, Director of Government Relations

Denying a child access to early childhood education and development opportunities is the single greatest factor to ensure their failure in life. It is scientifically proven that the early years of life are the most important for learning – this is the foundation that sets the path that will take us through childhood, the teenage years and ultimately into adulthood. Our leaders know that the future of our union depends on our ability to support children and families with quality early childhood education and development opportunities.

During the first week of October, gubernatorial candidates John Chiang, Delaine Eastin, Gavin Newsom and Antonio Villaraigosa participated in an event where they each acknowledged the importance of early childhood education and development. All candidates spoke in front of cameras, to media and a room full of education advocates. They all agreed that California should focus on increasing preschool opportunities for all children and that there are real ramifications when we do not invest in early childhood education and development opportunities.

Candidates Chiang, Eastin, Newsom and Villaraigosa understand that to keep our state golden, we must close corporate loopholes like those created by Proposition 13 and instead invest in opportunities for our children.  Quality early childhood education and development opportunities are the bedrock of a well-educated workforce and strong economy. More than ever, California must lead the nation to counteract the federal attack on children, families and progressive policies.

Our responsibility as adults is to protect and nurture children so they can grow up to be the leaders that protect our democracy tomorrow. Quality experiences in the early years give our children the sharing, caring, arguing, bargaining, and other forms of learning and socialization that are essential for our democracy tomorrow.

Researchers have found that parents with higher income status expose their children to a greater frequency of words. By age three, children in families with higher socio-economic status were exposed to two times the number of words than children in low-income working families. Closing the early learning gap is vital to give students an equal start in school and closing the achievement gap we see in K-12 education.

During the Great Recession, there were $1B in budget cuts to California’s early education programs – this was a near 40 percent cut to subsidized early care and education programs. The Golden State has since recovered from the recession, yet the youngest Californians are still being left behind. While state policymakers have made reinvestments in recent years, far fewer children overall are being served in the current fiscal year than in 2007-08, at the onset of the Great Recession. Reinvestments in early learning have been a hard fought battle moving at a snail’s pace. Nine years after the Great Recession, early care and education programs as a whole continue to operate at below pre-recession levels. We have a long way to go. Young Californian’s deserve better.

The next Governor must be a champion for families so that we get the youngest Californians off the roller coaster of up and down annual budgeting. The Golden State must ensure that every child has access to quality early childhood education and development opportunities. We need a Governor that will walk the talk and trail blaze a path that guarantees every young child access to affordable, quality early-learning opportunities.