A shortage of early learning opportunities is not unique to Clark County. A combination of economic realities have combined to reduce the number of programs and teachers, leaving millions of young children across the country without access to a preschool setting that can influence their academic and behavioral futures.
Early education has a profound impact on children. And available, affordable programs are essential to allowing parents the option of working outside the home. Because of that, boosting the number of providers and addressing affordability should be a priority of lawmakers at both the state and national levels.
As a recent headline in The Columbian stated, “Demand for early learning programs vastly outstrips supply in Clark County.” Reporter Griffin Reilly wrote, “Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the early learning and child care landscape has been largely reduced to at-home care and small-group daytime sessions.”
One example can be found in Head Start and Early Childhood Educational Assistance Program services in Clark County. According to the Families Foundation, 70 new slots were created for eligible children during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years – but 1,153 additional children were eligible.
Similar stories are being told elsewhere. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, by late 2022 there were 100,000 fewer workers in child care and early development than there were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a sub-headline in the New York Times asked and answered: “Where did they go? To better-paying jobs stocking shelves, cleaning offices or doing anything that pays more than $15 an hour.”
Finding adequate numbers of teachers is always going to be difficult in a capitalistic society. Schools – whether early learning or at the elementary and secondary levels – do not create products that can be sold to generate revenue that is put toward creating new products. Instead, they require a commitment from a community and a nation that recognizes the value of investing in education.
The pandemic has emphasized the importance of that investment, with educators at all levels working to mitigate the impact of learning loss and the behavioral issues that have accompanied extended periods of isolation. That is particularly true when it comes to early education; research from the Washington Department of Children, Youth and Families shows that the percentage of children identified as developmentally ready for kindergarten in the state has dropped sharply since 2019.
“Coming into the program at an early age helps them gain trust with their peers; learning to share, how to use their words, not to use their bodies for action,” one educator told The Columbian. “Addressing those behaviors later down the line once they’re worse might not be too easy; once they get a little older, they’re harder to change and more stubborn in their ways.”
For years, studies have demonstrated the long-term benefits of early childhood education. The National Education Association reports that early learning opportunities result in students who are more likely to graduate from high school and are, on average, higher earners when they enter the workforce.
But the United States long has been reluctant to fully support such programs. In 1971, President Richard Nixon vetoed a universal child care bill and said it was a “communal approach to child-rearing” and had “family-weakening implications.”
The same arguments persist. And they are holding back our nation’s economy and its future.
