• Why the concern about school readiness?
• Why can’t parents do this alone?
• If parents are working, why don’t they put their children in good child care?
• If they can’t afford good early care and early learning settings, why don’t parents work less or stop working?
• Is there no help for families at the city or state level?
• These are tight budget times. Why should we be investing now?
• Can the Ready, Set, Grow ... CT Kids! Campaign help to change this?
• How will this happen?

Why the concern about school readiness?

Children’s experiences during their earliest years set the stage for their later development and success. Yet, not all of our children are ready for school when they reach the kindergarten door. In some Connecticut districts, one out of every three children enters kindergarten without the skills and knowledge necessary for school success.

This "preparation gap" leads too often to the "achievement gap" we see in Connecticut Mastery Test scores as early as the fourth grade. And it continues all the way through high school, and beyond.

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Why can’t parents do this alone?

While parents provide "the cradle of learning" for their young children, many are working full-time and they need a partnership with their schools, their communities, and their policy makers to keep their young children healthy and safe, and to get them ready for success in early elementary school.

In Connecticut, all families with young children need a little help. Low wage families need a little more help, and families in which children are being raised by their grandparents need even more support.

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If parents are working, why don’t they put their children in good child care?

For many CT families with young children, the cost of early care represents their second largest expense, just behind housing. Early care costs for infants and toddlers, can range from $7,000 to $15,000 (or more) per child per year. Early care and education for preschool age children can range from $6,800 to over $10,000 per child per year

For low- to moderate wage Connecticut families, the cost of licensed early care can be prohibitive, so many turn to unlicensed settings.

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If they can’t afford good early care and early learning settings, why don’t parents work less or stop working?

Families across America who have young children feel trapped. In a recent national survey, 70% of parents felt strongly that the "best arrangement" for the care and development of young children was for one parent to stay at home with the child. Two-thirds, however, did not view this as a realistic option. So, families can’t afford not to work but they also can’t afford quality care for their children while they are at work.

For many Connecticut families with young children, one income is simply not enough for a family to afford such basic necessities as safe housing, child care, family health care, food and transportation. Data bear out this fact. Sixty-two percent of Connecticut families with children under the age of six have both parents, or the only parent, in the full-time workforce.

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Is there no help for families at the city or state level?

During the middle of the 1990s, public policy leaders in Connecticut recognized that too many children were coming to kindergarten unprepared. In 1997, the General Assembly passed landmark legislation called the School Readiness Act. This legislation provided for state and municipal support for high quality early childhood learning centers for three- and four-year olds in "priority school districts" across Connecticut. Today, about 6,000 children attend these centers, but 15,000 preschoolers – at risk of school failure -- do not because of insufficient funding.

To begin to address this challenge and to promote early learning for all of the state’s three- and four-year olds, last fall (2002) the CT State Board of Education endorsed a public policy of full access to preschool. This fall (2003) the State will release a report about the importance of this policy. As of now, there is no state plan about how to accomplish this, and no additional funding has yet been appropriated.

The State of Connecticut also uses state and federal money to provide child care subsidies for our lowest-income families so they can go to work. Right now, thousands of families who are eligible do not receive this help because of insufficient funding, and over the next two years the State of Connecticut will cut existing funds by 30%.

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These are tight budget times. Why should we be investing now?

Investing in quality early childhood experiences provides a dramatic long-term return on investment. A single dollar invested in high quality early child hood development programs returns between four and seven dollars over a 20-year period, much of the savings from reduced incarceration costs. Given mounting prison costs in Connecticut and across the nation, closing the prison door at the kindergarten door is sound public policy.

Closing Connecticut’s "preparation and achievement gaps" also provides an immediate return on investment. CT research shows that quality school readiness programs substantially reduce the numbers of children who must repeat kindergarten (at a savings of more than $10,000 per child) and who are diagnosed with special education needs (at a savings beginning at about $13,000 per child per year).

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Can the Ready, Set, Grow ... CT Kids! Campaign help to change this?

This campaign is about "big people helping little people" enter kindergarten ready. The campaign provides an opportunity for grown-ups in the State of Connecticut to make a collective statement about the state’s policy, program and funding priorities.

The campaign takes as its mission the 2003 Public Goal of The CT Early Childhood Alliance, a group of more than 30 state-local, public-private organizations: All children born in Connecticut beginning in 2004 will enter kindergarten healthy, eager to learn, and ready for school success.

By informing parents and the public about the importance of children’s readiness for school and persuading policy leaders to reinvest in the state’s young children, the Ready, Set, Grow..CT Kids! campaign can make a real difference in the lives of our youngest children, and their families.

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How will this happen?

Public policy leaders pay attention when large numbers of people tell them to. The campaign has two strategies to enlist significant public support.

Between now and the fall of 2006, Ready, Set, Grow ... CT Kids! seeks one adult for every child under age five to say that they support the public goal of getting all of our young children to the kindergarten door healthy and ready for school success. Through their support of the public goal, these people become "Friends of CT’s Young Children." Ready, Set, Grow requires nothing more of its Friends than permission to use their name in public support of the public goal.

While this will send an amazing message to Connecticut’s executive branch leaders and members of the General Assembly, we will also need a much smaller group of supporters working to ensure that policy and budget reinvestment in young children actually happens. Legislators tell us that they pay attention if they hear from five to 10 folks on a given issue. The campaign seeks to enlist at least 10% of Friends to become "Children’s Champions" and select one or two actions from a broad range of strategies that will help to persuade policy makers to reinvest in our young children.