We’re months away from Florida’s legislative session, but state educators and politicians are already talking about making early childhood education a priority. A state advisory council is backing a plan to reward high-quality daycare centers and tighten training for people who work with young children.
StateImpact Florida’s Sammy Mack reports on why child advocates say it makes sense to invest in kids before they ever get to kindergarten.It’s a Tuesday morning and parents are dropping off their toddlers and babies at Exploration Station. The hallways here look like what you might expect of a preschool.
The walls are lined with photos of smiling children and big sheets of swirling finger paint art. But Yolanda Borroto sees something else.
"Children that are beginning to develop their fine motor skills. Experimenting with science. Mixing the medias in terms of producing different colors", said Borroto.
Borroto is the director of Exploration Station. This place is more than a daycare; it’s an early learning center run by Miami-Dade College. It’s staffed by professionals who are trained in child development and students from the school of education.
From the infant room to the pre-k class, Children here are being prepared to become learners. Like 5-year-old Justin, who sits at a low table and sketches a television set.
Research has shown that children who get high-quality early learning—where instructors are trained in child development and reading and learning are encouraged through play—those children are more likely graduate high school and go on to college. They’re less likely to end up in jail.
Eduardo Padron is president of Miami Dade College. He sees the influence of early education in his own adult students.
"Most of the problems with college, students not succeeding, you can directly related to the lack of quality early learning in the young years", said Padron.
For Padron, the stakes get even higher.
"Lemme put it this way: for the US to success to maintain its leadership position", Padron said. "It’s very important that we can provide this foundation
Martha Kanter is the undersecretary of the US Department of Education. She recently visited South Florida for a White House summit on early learning and Hispanics. Kanter held up Miami Dade College’s efforts as a national model.
"We need replication in other places in the country", said Kanter.
This kind of high quality pre-school education isn’t cheap. Full price for Exploration Station costs $650 to $900 a month—though most of the families here receive a school discount or some kind of grant. The college pays for the building and all the facilities.
Florida’s School Readiness program does offer financial assistance to low income families for early learning programs across the state. But the waitlist for that help is longer than 60,000. As much money as it costs, researchers have shown that every dollar spent on early learning can save about seven dollars in the future.