Wednesday, August 02, 2006
...and we'll continue to speak out about the importance of quality, early childhood education.
Early education makes for healthier kids
By Walter Harrison, M.D.
Sunday, July 30, 2006Pediatricians know what fosters healthy child development, and as a group we agree: high-quality early education leads to healthy outcomes for children. That is why so many pediatricians are committed personally to the Early Education for All (EEA) Campaign, a coalition of leaders from diverse sectors working to ensure that voluntary high-quality early education is available to every Massachusetts' three-, four-, and five-year-old.
The human brain develops more rapidly between birth and age five than during any other subsequent period. Medical and educational research has repeatedly demonstrated the important and lasting benefits of high-quality early childhood education on a child's social, emotional, and cognitive readiness for school.
Children, particularly those from high-risk environments, enrolled in quality early education programs fare significantly better in school and have improved long-term outcomes. Children who begin school lagging behind their peers often never catch up, and the success or failure of certain adolescents in school has been correlated with their degree of "readiness" at the time of entry into elementary school.
In Peabody, 69 percent of children under the age of five live in families where all parents are employed, and 35 percent of our third graders do not meet state standards for reading proficiency on the MCAS. Clearly, Peabody's children would benefit from a universal high-quality early education program.
The Massachusetts Senate made an historic commitment to the health of all young children on June 15 by unanimously passingAn Act Relative to Early Education and Care (S.2583), landmark legislation that creates the Massachusetts Universal Pre-Kindergarten Program.
Senator Fred Berry has exhibited extraordinary leadership in the passage of this critical legislation, as the lead Senate champion for "Early Education for All." The House version of S.2583 was passed unanimously in March, with the enthusiastic support of Peabody Rep. Ted Speliotis. We are grateful for the Legislature's visionary leadership and urge that this bill is promptly signed by Governor Mitt Romney when it reaches his desk.
In the coming years, the Legislature must also appropriate sufficient funding to see this vision to fruition. It's time that each and every child - in Peabody and across the Commonwealth- has access to a high-quality early learning experience, giving them the healthy start that they deserve
Walter Harrison is a pediatrician with a practice in Peabody.
