President calls for 'race to the top' for nation's youngest children
Maya Sugarman/KPCC
One-year-old Melanie, and mother Michelle Zamora make faces at each other. The Baldwin Park school district's Early Childhood programs, which use Head Start funds, experienced cuts due to federal sequestration. Advocates were hoping President Obama would directly address the needs of infants and toddlers in his State of the Union speech.
Calling for a “race to the top” for the nation’s youngest children, President Barack Obama announced in his State of the Union speech Tuesday night that he will pull together a coalition of elected officials, business leaders and philanthropists to “help more kids access the high-quality pre-K they need.”
It was exactly the kind of thing early childhood education advocates wanted to hear.
“I hope that years from now we will be able to look to this day, and to 2014, as an historic moment when as a country and as a state we made early learning a top priority,” said Deborah Kong, Executive Director of Early Edge California, a group that advocates for universal preschool. “As the President said, preparing tomorrow’s workforce means guaranteeing every child access to a world-class education - and that starts in the earliest years.”
Kong watched the State of the Union with her 2 year-old son, Robby.
The President began his 6th State of the Union with education, talking about a teacher who spent “extra time with a student who needed it.” About halfway through the 65 minute long address, he came back to education.
He talked about college access and praised new Common Core standards adopted by more than 40 states and his education secretary’s Race to the Top initiative. Then he