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Early childhood education is a very important investment in our future PDF Print
By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor

Fact- Fewer than half of Minnesota’s children enter kindergarten fully prepared.

Fact- 20 percent of third graders in Minnesota can’t read.

Fact- Between birth and age five the brain develops at a faster rate than at any other time in a person’s life.

Fact- When planning future jails, several states determine how many beds they will need by the number of third graders who can’t read.

Fact- For every dollar spent on early childhood education, the return is 12-fold. This is figured on the additional financial strain on society for special tutoring, probation, court services, law enforcement, chemical dependency counseling, and incarceration.

“Early childhood education is one of the most important investments we can make in our society today. The earlier we begin reading to our children, and start providing them with the basic fundamentals of education, the better off we will all be,” former State Sen. Duane Benson told a group of about 40 Houston County educators and business leaders.

Benson, who is the executive director of the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF), was the key note speaker at an informational brunch hosted by the Houston County Early Childhood Initiative Thursday morning at the Four Seasons Community Center in Caledonia. As Minnesota continues to become more diversified, the need for early childhood education becomes that much greater.

Benson told the group that the United States is under-investing in early childhood development, which actually diminishes our nation’s ability to compete in the global marketplace. Research confirms the huge long-term economic payoffs from investments in quality early childhood development programs.

The idea for a state-wide agency to promote early childhood education was born in 2001 when six separate initiative foundations saw the need for an organization that could champion early childhood education on a broader scale. In 2003 the Minnesota Early Childhood Initiative was formed, thanks to a $3.2 million grant from the McKnight Foundation. The grant leveraged funding from other corporations and foundations, and was followed by a second $3 million grant from the McKnight Foundation in 2006.

Houston County’s Early Childhood Initiative (ECI) was also formed in 2003 with support from the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation. The local ECI is comprised of parents, business people, educators, childcare professions, and community members with a wide range of backgrounds.

The Houston County ECI provides county-wide infant screenings, supports kindergarten readiness programs, provides professional childcare training and has undertaken an ongoing public awareness campaign about the importance of quality early care and education.

Mary Zaffke of the Houston County Public Nursing Department told the group about the importance of screening infants between the ages of four and six months.

“If infants are having developmental problems at four to six months, they will have more issues down the road. It is so important to detect these problems as soon as possible, so they can be addressed right away,” Zaffke explained.

Zaffke noted between 30 to 35 percent of the families invited to the screens actually attend them. And of those who attend, 100 percent felt they did have concerns about their babies.

Representatives from the La Crescent-Hokah School District gave a short presentation on “Kindergarten Kamp” they held last summer to bring children preparing for their first year of school up to speed.

Mary Lou Busta also provided information as to some of the recent activities of the early childhood education programs in both the Caledonia and Spring Grove school districts.

Getting parents involved is of paramount importance, according to Benson. Even before birth, both the mother and father should begin reading to their child. And they need to continue nurturing that child after he or she begins school.

“Once a child begins school, that doesn’t mean the education system takes over,” Benson cautioned. “We should not become a ‘nanny state,’ as Newt Gingrich said. Parents, and that means both the mother and father, need to be involved all the way through their school years.”

In its Minnesota School Readiness Study, the Minnesota Department of Education stated, “school readiness is not just ready children. It includes ready families, ready schools and ready communities. A ready family includes adults who understand they are the most important people in the child’s life and take responsibility for the child’s school readiness through direct, frequent and positive involvement and interest in the child.”

“These kids are our future. We need to do everything possible to make their start a positive one. That is what we are all about,” Benson concluded.