Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Another opinion on school readiness...
First, I would like to remind you that on Thursday, April 30th, more than 1,000 parents, educators and community leaders are expected to gather in the Capitol rotunda at 10 a.m. to talk about funding for early-childhood education at the fifth annual Minnesota Voices for Children's Advocacy Day. If you are able to get away, it would be great to have you lend a voice to the concerns about our state's youngest citizens.
Secondly, I would like to share another opinion article that was in The Morning Call, a paper in Pennsylvania. The article was written by Arthur Scott, who is the president of Northampton Community College. You may wonder why the president of a community college is promoting school readiness. I find it interesting the way he promotes it as a necessary first step to higher learning, but he says it better than I can so here is the article...
link
First, I would like to remind you that on Thursday, April 30th, more than 1,000 parents, educators and community leaders are expected to gather in the Capitol rotunda at 10 a.m. to talk about funding for early-childhood education at the fifth annual Minnesota Voices for Children's Advocacy Day. If you are able to get away, it would be great to have you lend a voice to the concerns about our state's youngest citizens.
Secondly, I would like to share another opinion article that was in The Morning Call, a paper in Pennsylvania. The article was written by Arthur Scott, who is the president of Northampton Community College. You may wonder why the president of a community college is promoting school readiness. I find it interesting the way he promotes it as a necessary first step to higher learning, but he says it better than I can so here is the article...
link
Nation underfunds education from early childhood on.
Spring is before us. As we anticipate warm days, we are also deluged with stories about budgets. The federal government is debating how to reduce the deficit, the commonwealth is discussing gaming revenues, and local officials are wrestling with property taxes. What is missing from these discussions is a long-term focus on issues of critical importance to the future of this country. Chief among those issues is how we continue to adequately fund education.
Since I became Northampton Community College's president three years ago, I have repeatedly argued that economic prosperity and an educated populace go hand-in-hand. If a nation wants economic growth, if it wants involved, civic-minded communities, and if it wants to improve the quality-of-life for all its citizens, it needs to address issues of educational access.Lehigh
Valley Local Links
In my view, these discussions begin with a close look at our national attitude toward pre-school programs. Our children are the most underfunded generation in our history, and yet, they represent our future. There is an irony in the fact that grandparents across this country take justifiable pride in their grandchildren yet do not transfer that love to political action concerning their future well being.
Studies show that children who are not ready for school at age 5 are destined for failure. Yet, as a society, we have not adequately addressed the issue of affordable child care, we allow those who mold the minds of our youngest citizens to be poorly paid, and we tolerate the underfunding of programs like Head Start. The struggles encountered by families attempting to work, go to school, and provide for their children are heart-wrenching. One would think that consensus could be built across party lines to resolve them but, unfortunately, the topic does not even generate meaningful discussion.
Why, you may ask, is a community college president writing about child care? The answer is: I am concerned about the whole education spectrum. Our lack of attention to pre-school issues makes the job before our elementary and secondary school teachers more challenging, especially when coupled with families abdicating responsibilities to teachers.
The state of educational attainment in this country is alarming. Reports on the meeting of the Commission on the Future of Higher Education last October, note that U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings shared sobering statistics: The United States now ranks fifth among industrialized nations in high school completion rates and seventh in college graduation rates. Studies cited by the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education indicate that students from families in the bottom quartile of income are nine times less likely to earn a bachelor's degree by age 24 than students from the top quartile.
The divide between the haves and have-nots is growing. It extends beyond the digital divide and has become an educational divide. In my view, education is no longer given the highest government priority in this country. Education is no longer seen as a common good deserving of public support. As it becomes a private benefit available only to those who can afford it, the implications for our country's future are not good.
At Northampton, part of our mission is to provide quality instruction at a low cost. Recognizing that ''low cost'' is a relative term, the staff works diligently to insure cost does not prevent a student from attending. Educational access is what we care most about. We reach out every day to prospective students who have the potential and desire to learn. We are fortunate that many in the community share our passion and provide financial assistance to our students. Our foundation has the largest scholarship program among all Pennsylvania community colleges, but, no matter how generous this community remains, private dollars alone will not bridge the educational divide.
Elected officials at all levels need to consider the stark future of this country if higher education becomes the privilege of a few and not a right enjoyed by many. My father-in-law is fond of saying, ''People get the government they deserve.'' We deserve better public policy as it relates to education. It's up to each of us to see that we get it.
Arthur Scott of Palmer Township is the president of Northampton Community College.
// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 6:12 PM 
