Legislators: Time to put your money where your mouth is, Charlotte Observer

June 2011

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From state Board of Education Chairman William C. Harrison and N.C. Partnership for Children Chairman Olson Huff:

When it comes to children, policymakers talk a good game.

“We must put children first.”

But as the saying goes, “talk is cheap.” And in North Carolina, it is becoming very cheap. While legislators’ mouths are saying, “We will protect children” their pens are slashing the very programs that promise children an opportunity to succeed. By unraveling North Carolina’s nationally recognized early childhood system and cutting what’s left of it by 20 percent, legislators are placing a disproportionate share of the sacrifice on our youngest children – those at an age where the brain is literally being built and the foundation for all learning is established.

The science is definitive: The brain is hard-wired for learning in the first five years of life. The experiences that children have in their earliest years literally shape the architecture of their brains and strongly affect whether they grow up to be productive, contributing members of society.

In our state, Smart Start and More at Four have been ensuring that children have the experiences they need to succeed. Smart Start is the state’s public/private partnership that improves children’s early care and education programs; provides parents with tools to raise healthy, happy, successful children; and ensures that children have access to preventive health care. More at Four is the state’s academic program for at-risk 4-year-olds. It is tied to K-12 education to serve as a vital bridge into education for at-risk kids. Built through years of innovation, these programs are held up as a model by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, cited in textbooks, and serve as the impetus for people from around the world to come here to learn what we do.

But more importantly, Smart Start and More at Four produce results that speak to the very things policymakers say they want. For example, legislative leaders have emphasized the need to make sure children are reading by third grade. Smart Start and More at Four do that. Duke University released a study this year showing that all N.C. third-graders have higher standardized reading and math scores and lower special education placement rates in counties that received more funding for Smart Start and More at Four when those children were younger.

Legislative leaders say that every dollar must be invested wisely. Smart Start and More at Four do that. Nobel-prize winning economist James Heckman found that a dollar invested in the first five years has a larger return on investment than a dollar invested at any other point in the education life cycle.

Legislative leaders say that North Carolina needs a growth strategy. Investing in developing healthy, smart and productive children is a fiscally responsible way to reduce deficits and create growth.

Given the contradiction between rhetoric and action, we must ask: Do our legislative leaders support young children or not? Do they think third grade reading is important or not? Will they provide the experiences that literally wire the brain for learning or not? Will they invest in our economic future or not?

If they believe that children are indeed our future, then it is time for policymakers to do more than talk. It is time to act.