A New York Times commentary that examines the inequalities in education among children of different economic levels made a great case for investing in early childhood education. The evidence presented in the article points to the fact that the learning gap between children of wealthy parents and the children of parents who are not wealthy has continued to widen over the years. But all hope is not lost because "if the relationship between family income and educational success can change this rapidly, then it is not an immutable, inevitable pattern."
The writer goes on to add:
“Maybe we should take a lesson from the rich and invest much more heavily as a society in our children’s educational opportunities from the day they are born. Investments in early-childhood education pay very high societal dividends. That means investing in developing high-quality child care and preschool that is available to poor and middle-class children.”
Helping all children develop their cognitive skills early will not only benefit them and their families, it will benefit our communities as well. There are many advantages associated with preschool and spending money on early childhood education is money well spent. There is a good chance that children who begin school with a solid foundation won’t fall behind their peers. School systems spend a lot of money trying to bring children up to speed once they have fallen behind. And when children feel that they cannot keep up, they tend to lose motivation.
At Horizon Education Centers, we offer a Head Start program for children ages 3-5 at four of our centers: Elyria, East Lorain, Southside (Lorain) and South Elyria (LMHA Wilkes Villa). We prepare low-income children socially and academically for Kindergarten.
