Learning's foundation is in early education

Congress is considering restructuring the nation's most expansive education law to improve components of No Child Left Behind.

The blueprint proposed by the Obama administration calls for increased focus on teachers and principals, more tools to help parents evaluate schools, greater support and intervention in schools with the lowest scores and better standards to ensure that students are prepared for college and careers.

But nowhere does the proposed successor to NCLB - the Elementary and Secondary Education Act - mention shoring up the front end of education: early-childhood programs, which provide children with the foundation for success later in life.

The Obama administration has argued that investing in pre-kindergarten programs is critical to improving children's cognitive, emotional and social skills, and that the programs better prepare them to be students and future employees. Early childhood programs - $8 billion over eight years - were included in the higher education package embedded in the health care bill.

But when the bill was passed, the early childhood component and its money were removed, an unintended consequence of the reconciliation process, said U.S. Rep. Glenn Nye, a proponent of pre-K programs.

Now Congress is looking at specific education changes, and the president's Blueprint for Reform does not address the most critical time in a child's life to influence learning: the first five years.

The president and Congress must find a way to make early-childhood education a priority. As Lisa Howard, director of Smart Beginnings South Hampton Roads, noted, "if the Blueprint for Reform can be compared to the blueprints for a building, where are the plans for the foundation?"

Early education is that foundation.

Harvard University researchers found that 50 percent of the achievement gap in 12th grade is there by first grade. Retired military officers have called on Virginia to bankroll pre-kindergarten for at-risk 4-year-olds, arguing, correctly, that such an investment helps to produce a work force more capable of serving in the armed forces.

We need a long-term plan for helping children from birth to age 5 prepare to be successful. Rather than adding onto the blueprint, early childhood - the foundation - is where the restructuring of our education laws and priorities needs to start.