Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will propose almost $2 billion for early childhood programs

[TexasTowelie]

Seeking to frame his new administration as one with a firm focus on closing the gap between children from affluent and poor families, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will propose spending some $1.8 billion on an array of programs designed to boost California’s enrollment in early education and child-care programs.

Newsom’s plan, which he hinted at in a Fresno event last month, will be a key element in the state budget proposal he submits to the Legislature shortly after taking office Monday, a source close to the governor-elect’s transition team said Tuesday.

The spending would boost programs designed to ensure children enter kindergarten prepared to learn, closing what some researchers have called the “readiness gap” that exists based on a family’s income. It would also phase in an expansion of prekindergarten, and offer money to help school districts that don’t have facilities for full-day kindergarten.

“The fact that he’s making significant investments with his opening budget is really exciting,” Ted Lempert, president of the Bay Area-based nonprofit Children Now, said Tuesday. “What’s exciting is the comprehensiveness of it, because it’s saying we’re going to focus on prenatal through age 5.”

Read more: https://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-may-2018-gov-elect-gavin-newsom-will-propose-1546395091-htmlstory.html

[BigmanPigman]

1. As a former first grade teacher in CA it is crucial for kids to have this.

Kids who have early education does put them in a good position to enter Kindergarten. Kids who do not have access to these programs are very far behind their classmates. Things have changed since we were kids. Now students should know in Kindergarten what we were required to know in first grade 30 years ago. All the grades have been bumped up a year to two years. Developmentally they can handle it but some parents push them too hard and when their kids aren't developmentally ready they are pressured by their parents to perform skills that are beyond them and then they often get frustrated and learn less as a result.