How Important is Preschool?

Those of us who have had small children know they are little sponges, absorbing information and new words at a surprising (and sometimes alarming!) rate.  Many of us in Woodinville have the means to provide our toddlers with enriching experiences – the Zoo, Children’s Museum, the Aquarium – and to pay for pre-school.  All of these things help get our children prepared to enter Kindergarten “ready to learn”.  In fact, they have been learning all along.

Since 2009, a public-private partnership has been developing and using a tool called WaKIDS to assess the skills that children come to Kindergarten with. Preliminary results showed that in the area of language, communication, and literacy, nearly half of all the children enter Kindergarten with skills below the expected grade level. 

These differences are even vaster for economically disadvantaged children, pointing to the continued need for accessible, high quality early learning programs for low income children and families. Other research has demonstrated that kids who begin Kindergarten behind never catch up. This is a huge contributing factor in WA’s continuing achievement gap. Nearly 22% of low-income kids drop out of HS, and less than 70% graduate HS on time. 

The need for accessible, high quality early learning programs will be addressed in a bill sponsored by our own House of Representative Roger Goodman. HB 2448 – Creating the High Quality Learning Act, does several things:

· Requires the Washington Preschool Program to be implemented, beginning with the 2014-2015 school year, to provide voluntary preschool opportunities for children 3 and 4 years of age. Upon full implementation in 2024-25, the Washington Preschool Program would be a part of the program of basic education.

· Requires funding for the Washington Preschool Program to be appropriated.

HB 2448 is strongly supported by education advocacy groups, including the Washington State PTA.

What can you do to support passage of this bill? Send an email of support to the House Early Learning and Human Services committee members (don’t forget to thank Rep. Goodman for sponsoring the bill):

ruth.kagi@leg.wa.gov

maryhelen.roberts@leg.wa.gov

maureen.walsh@leg.wa.gov

mike.hope@leg.wa.gov

marylou.dickerson@leg.wa.gov

roger.goodman@leg.wa.gov

norm.johnson@leg.wa.gov

tina.orwall@leg.wa.gov

jason.overstreet@leg.wa.gov

Read the preliminary WaKIDS report here:

http://www.k12.wa.us/WaKIDS/pubdocs/WaKIDS_UW%202010PreliminaryReport.pdf

and see what kinds of things WaKIDS assesses here:

http://www.k12.wa.us/WaKIDS/pubdocs/WaKIDS-PerformanceGoals.pdf