Not Just Nanny States

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Not Just Nanny States, but Nanny United States!

President Bush & Early Childhood Development

An urgent message we received from Bunny Chambers, President of the Oklahoma Eagle Forum, on April 3:

Please spread the word as this affects all of us.

How I wish this were an April Fool Joke! The President has aligned himself with Marian Wright Edelman of the Children's Defense Fund and all the so-called "child advocates" to promote government control of daycare, i.e. early childhood education.

Today I talked with a daycare worker who was lobbying for Senate Bill 37--Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness Act. She said she was receiving a scholarship from DHS to get her Early Childhood Education degree from OSU. She said, "Anybody can change a diaper, but this is about education and getting the children ready to learn." I asked if she were concerned about the government taking over the daycare centers, and she said, "Yes, she had begun to think about that, but if that happens, she hopes their daycare will become part of that system." She believes daycare workers will receive more pay; that ALL children will benefit from the coming changes; AND, she believes that private, informal daycare will become a thing of the past.

How can we sit back and let the liberal "child advocates," the President, the Governors and Legislators enact legislation that will be another step toward the Nanny United States? What are you doing in your states?

I'm forwarding the message I received (as a National Committeewoman) from Ken Mehlman whose office is in the Whitehouse, and who meets with the President daily. Perhaps we need to let Ken know how we feel, and ask him to relay our messages to the President. I suggest you email him today. His email address is included with his message.

Date: Tue, 02 Apr 2002 17:02:59 -0500

From: Ken_Mehlman@who.eop.gov

Subject: Talking Points -- Early Childhood Development

Talking points on the President's announcement today

(See attached file: Early Childhood Development Talkers.doc)

Note: Marian Wright Edelman was Hillary Clinton's friend and mentor in their joint effort to establish a socialist form of community ["It takes a "village"] care for all children. For more information about her mission, "find" her name in Character Training for Global Citizenship and The State of the World according to Gorbachev. She was a plenary speaker at Gorbachev's 1996 State of the World Forum.

President Announces Early Childhood Initiative

Presidential Action

President Bush today announced a new initiative to improve early childhood education for millions of America's youngest children. The President's initiative will:

Strengthen Head Start to improve the quality of experiences for young children, including training the nearly 50,000 Head Start teachers in the latest and best techniques;

Ensure that pre-school programs are more closely coordinated with state K-12 education goals; and

Improve the information available to parents and caregivers about the best practices in early childhood development, including an unprecedented $45 million research effort to identify effective early literacy programs and practices.

Background on Today's Early Childhood Announcement

In his State of the Union Address, President Bush stressed the need to prepare children to read and succeed in school with improved Head Start and early childhood development programs. These themes built upon the First Lady's Summit on Early Childhood Cognitive Development, held in July, 2001.

The early childhood initiative announced by President Bush seeks to improve the state of early childhood education, where too many children come to school unprepared to learn. Because a significant number of young children receive care from people other than their parents (62% of children age 5 or younger), Federal and state governments provide more than $18 billion annually (more than $14 billion in Federal support alone) to help families ? particularly low-income families ? provide for pre-K care. Despite these significant resources, not all children are receiving care that is high-quality care because: 1) many states do not fully align what children are doing before they enter school with what is expected of them once they are in school; 2) early childhood programs are seldom evaluated based on how well they prepare students to succeed in school; and 3) there is not enough information for early childhood teachers, parents, and other child care providers on the activities that prepare children to be successful in school.

President Bush's early childhood initiative will help states and local communities to overcome these obstacles and strengthen early learning for young children by:

Strengthening Head Start: The President has directed the Department of Health and Human Services to implement a new accountability system to ensure that every Head Start center assesses standards of learning in early literacy, language and numeracy skills. HHS will implement a national training project with the goal of training all of the nearly 50,000 Head Start teachers this year in the best pre-reading and language teaching techniques for young children.

Partnering with States to Improve Early Childhood Education: To ensure that pre-school activities are aligned with state education goals, the President's plan asks States to develop quality criteria for early childhood education, including optional guidelines on pre-reading and language skills activities for pre-school age children ages that align with State K-12 standards. To help states meet these criteria, the President's plan gives states more flexibility with their federal child care funds.

Providing Information to Teachers, Caregivers and Parents: In order to close the gap between the best research and current practices in early childhood education, the Department of Education will implement a broad public awareness campaign targeted toward parents, early childhood educators, childcare providers, and other interested parties. Additionally, the President announced an unprecedented $45 million collaborative research initiative between the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Department of Education to identify effective early literacy programs and teaching strategies.

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For more information, go to http://www.icehouse.net/lmstuter/ecdl.htm and see what is happening in the state of Washington. "No daycare will be allowed to operate that is not state-certified," says researcher Lynn Stuter.

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