A Grant for the Future

By Rachel Lehman, Undergraduate Research Fellow, December 19, 2011 at 4:00 pm

Early childhood education is beneficial to both parents and children and allows entire families the opportunity for economic success. Minnesota recognizes the importance of early child education, and has earned, along with eight other states, a portion of a $500 million dollar grant provided by the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services.

Ranking seventh out of the nine top states in the Race to the Top education reform sweepstakes, Minnesota stood out for its ambitious plan for early childhood education programs as well as programs currently underway.

Future strategies to address the extensive achievement gap in Minnesota between white and nonwhite students follow a nationwide trend in aiming towards more advanced early education programs. With a potential $45 million dollar grant from the sweepstakes increasing federal resources in the state, programs already underway will receive a huge boost in funding. Ideally, this grant will help programs reach their full potential.

With a report last month uncovering nearly half of Minnesota students are unprepared for kindergarten; this grant is clearly essential to the welfare of children in Minnesota.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Minnesota along with the other 8 winning states composed "…groundbreaking applications. Early learning is absolutely critical for our national long-term economic plan," he continued. "These nine states have made a commitment."

Minnesota is obviously not accepting educational achievement gaps as inevitable, and recognizes that reform is necessary. Early childhood education needs to allow all children to reach their full potential, and only quality, and accessible programs can accomplish this goal.

While federal dollars help provide a great boost in getting some of these initiatives started, we must start investing significantly more in early childhood education on the state level. Remember, many of these federal dollars come with strings attached; the more we count on federal money the more autonomy we're yielding.

Posted in Education | Related Topics: Early Childhood Education  Education Funding  Race to the Top