Sharing Web Resources

Sharing Web Resources I requested a newsletter from the National Black Child Development Institute during week one but I have yet to receive any information. While reviewing the website, there was a link to Alliance for early Success and under its umbrella was a link to Birth to Five Policy Alliance. This link supports and hopes to strengthen black children and families in Jackson MS, Detroit, MI, and Milwaukee, WI. I also signed up to receive NBCDI’s policy alerts. While observing some of their policy/trend issues there were a couple that caught my eye. The article, “Growing Number Ask for Higher Spending in Early Childhood Education” included both politicians, and neuroscientist collaborating thoughts and ideas wanting to assist children of Nebraska to better themselves as well as the economy. During the meeting Senator John Harms and other politicians discussed his bill: “Sen. John Harms of Scottsbluff and others who supported his bill (LB190) are asking the committee to set aside $20 million in the next two-year budget -- $10 million a year -- to help more at-risk Nebraska kids and their parents through the Early Childhood Education Endowment Cash Fund. The first three years of children's lives affects their education, employment and interaction with the community and society, Harms said. In those years, they need three critical tools: a solid relationship with adults they can constantly count on, activities that promote healthy brain development and a good and safe place to live, learn, play and create."We're short of that in over 30,000 children," he said. "I don't know how you feel, but it makes my heart really heavy."(2013 P.1) Dr. Laura Jana, an Omaha pediatrician who studied in cellular and molecular biology explained to the committee the poverty was a neurotoxin, right to the level of neurons in the brain responsible for learning. She also stated, “seven hundred neurons per second are developed, pruned, made more efficient and connected in the very early years of life. Social-emotional learning happens in preschool play.” Dr. Jana also explained, “I don’t want anybody to ever listen to the world ‘play’ again and not start thinking executive function skills, the ability to work in the workforce, to organize thoughts, to change your course based on new information. That is what pre-school is.”(2013, p.1) I think this quote summarizes it all. This is an issue I can highly related, not only do I have a 3 year old daughter, but I also am a childcare provider wanting all children to have an opportunity to receive great and high quality learning experiences. I rather for politicians to spend more funding in the beginning than when it is too late during intervention. Let’s not waste wonderful innocent minds, instead let’s help to engage, and encourage young children and get them ready for school. In the article “Pre-k, paying off experts says” was a topic in a forum focused on Georgia’s lottery Pre-K program after 20 years and provided positive feedback from parents and educators on how the program has aided 4-year olds with school readiness. The program started in 1992; about 1.2 million students have received services which cost $4.5 billion. This year 84,000 students attend 3,800 public and private pre-k classes across Georgia, but they were trying to decided what they were going to do during the budget cut for the next school year. This seems to be an issue in many early childhood programs and schools. They are being challenged to do extreme cuts due to the decline in the economy. I also thought it was interesting that investors such as Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, George Kaiser Family Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation were a few that invest in early childhood education/studies. Through research they also take a look at the whole child and his/her well being. Unknown. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Pre-K Paying off Experts Say. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved from http://birthtofivepolicy.org/ Young, JoANNE.(2013)Growing number ask for higher spending in early childhood education. Lincoln Journal Star. p.1 Retrieved from http://birthtofivepolicy.org/ National Black Child Development Institute http://nbcdi.org/ (Newsletter: http://nbcdi.org/support/sign-up-for-nbcdi-newsletters/ ) Birth to five policy alliance http://birthtofivepolicy.org/