House Education Committee Chairman Highland and Committee Members

House Education Committee Chairman Highland and Committee Members:

Thank you for your time today. I’d like to speak to the importance of literacy to our Kansas children, high school drop-out rates, poverty programs, economy and incarceration rates.

I would like to call your attention to the attachments.

The first is the number of American adults who can’t read, the source is U.S. Department of Education, National Institute of Literacy. Illiteracy Statistics

14% of US adults can’t read; 21% of US adults read below 5th grade level, 19% of H.S. grads who can’t read. April 28, 2013 data says 63% of inmates can’t read and now 70% as of April 15, 2015.

Second is the Staggering Illiteracy Statistics. Shouldn’t literacy be priority number one in education? This must change. We literally can’t afford to ignore this issue anymore.

Third, is a chart with the percentage of persons 14 years and older who were illiterate by race and nativity from 1870 to 1979 prepared in 1992 by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Looking at the chart we see that in 1870 20% of the total population was illiterate; 11.5% white population and 80% for blacks, many former slaves as stated in the explanation. However, the gap in illiteracy between blacks and white adults narrowed till by 1979 the rates were nearly the same, only around 1% illiterate.

Why is there a resurgence of illiteracy?

The main literacy program that was in place up until1979 was intensive phonics – which produced readers of all learning types and basically left no one behind.

So what happened? I find it interesting that 1979 is also the year that President Jimmy Carter created the Department of Education - and literacy has gone downhill from there.

Children and people in general don’t all learn the same way. Some are visual learners, some auditory, some kinetically with hands on…. One size doesn’t fit all. However, it seems that the whole word method, sometimes with a little phonics, is the predominant one being taught in government schools and efforts to alter that are constantly rebuffed.

I’ve heard that about a third of students will figure out how to read no matter how you teach reading, a second third will read but not proficiently and a third will be lost, not because they can’t learn but it’s taught in a way that misses their learning style.

Dr. Ben Carson is a great example of the difference it makes to be able to read. His life story I used around 2000 in a jobs program as an incentive for the classes. In 5th grade he thought he was the class dummy so didn’t try. His mother was concerned that he and his brother were failing, so she required that they read two books a week and give her book reports. When he applied himself, read his lessons, he surprised himself and excelled. However, in college he quickly learned that he was not an auditory learner. So he skipped the professor’s lectures and studied the text books in detail. That served him well through college and medical school. He is a brilliant neurosurgeon. How many students are like him but are falling through the cracks because they don’t have the stepping stone he had – being able to read well. How many of those in prison who can’t read are Ben Carson’s who are stuck without the first stepping stone? It’s time for school choice in Kansas.

I’ve been aware of many private schools like Marva Collins who saw what was happening and took all high risks students who were failing in government schools and they excelled and learned to read in her school when they didn’t in public school. Same kids, different approach.

Here is another school in Alabama doing the same thing. Dr. Carson visited the school and I saw the article, Ben Carson Highlights School Success in Alabama. The students in this inner-city school are ahead of grade level in reading. “Within just a few years, the school…was gaining notice for its students’ academic achievements. By now, those achievements are not just remarkable, but bordering on stunning.”

Look again at the Staggering Literacy Statistics. Promoting literacy for all students will lower the rate of high school dropouts, crime level, prison beds, poverty programs and human misery and increase per capita income, entrepreneurship and human thriving. Kansas needs school choice to allow school dollars to follow the child. Let the parents and students get schooling that matches their learning style.

Please see the article, Why Not Teach Intensive Phonics?

Mary L. Burkhardt, director of the Department of Reading (K-12), City School District Rochester, New York, tells about the tremendous results achieved when she got rid of the look-say and eclectic (combination phonics and sight-reading) programs and replaced them with intensive phonics programs. She says that “Reality is that whether children are “advantaged” or “disadvantaged,” black or white, rich or poor, does not have anything to do with how successfully children learn to read. Based on my professional experiences, such statements are only excuses for not teaching children to read….”

The Kansas legislature funds schools to comply with the state constitution that requires funding a ‘suitable’ education. Can any education be suitable if a large number of students don’t learn to read?

If government schools are not using the funds in the most effective way to teach reading, then should funding be tied to reading skills? Not necessarily, because it would only produce what Nancy Carlsson-Paige, an early childhood development expert, witnessed at a low-income community in north Miami where most of the children were on free- and reduced lunch. You will find her comments in the article “How twisted Early Childhood Education Has Become”.

She said, “The program’s funding depended on test scores, so — no surprise — teachers taught to the test. Kids who got low scores, I was told, got extra drills in reading and math and didn’t get to go to art. They used a computer program to teach 4- and 5-year-olds how to “bubble.””

I wonder how fast government schools if they had competition would drop the sight-reading that leaves about a third of students either not proficient or illiterate. What we really need is school choice. Please unshackle the students and parents to be able to find programs that excel like Marva Collins and Pritchard Prep by allowing the money to follow the child and to increase the scholarship program that passed last session.

Phillis Setchell, Topeka Illiteracy Statistics

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Institute of Literacy Research Date: April 15th, 2015

U.S. Illiteracy Statistics Data

Percent of U.S. adults who can’t read (below a basic level) 14 %

Number of U.S. adults who can’t read 32,000,000

Percent of prison inmates who can’t read 70 %

Percent of high school graduates who can’t read 19 %

Reading Level of U.S. Adults Percent

Proficient 13 %

Intermediate 44 %

Basic 29 %

Below Basic 14 %

Demographics of Adults Who Read Below a Basic Level Percent of Population

Hispanic 41 %

Black 24 %

White 9 %

Other 13 %

http://www.statisticbrain.com/number-of-american-adults-who-cant-read/

Statistic Verification

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Institute of Literacy

Research Date: 4.28.2013

U.S. Illiteracy Statistics Data

Percent of U.S. adults who can’t read 14 %

Number of U.S. adults who can’t read 32 Million

Percent of U.S. adults who read below a 5th grade level 21 %

Percent of prison inmates who can’t read 63 %

Percent of high school graduates who can’t read 19 %

Percent of the worlds illiterate who are female 66 %

http://www.statisticbrain.com/number-of-american-adults-who-cant-read/

STAGGERING ILLITERACY STATISTICS

 There is a correlation between illiteracy and income at least in individual economic terms, in that literacy has payoffs and is a worthwhile investment. As the literacy rate doubles, so doubles the per capita income.

The Nation

 In a study of literacy among 20 ‘high income’ countries; US ranked 12th  Illiteracy has become such a serious problem in our country that 44 million adults are now unable to read a simple story to their children  50% of adults cannot read a book written at an eighth grade level  45 million are functionally illiterate and read below a 5th grade level  44% of the American adults do not read a book in a year  6 out of 10 households do not buy a single book in a year

The Economy

 3 out of 4 people on welfare can’t read  20% of Americans read below the level needed to earn a living wage  50% of the unemployed between the ages of 16 and 21 cannot read well enough to be considered functionally literate  Between 46 and 51% of American adults have an income well below the poverty level because of their inability to read  Illiteracy costs American taxpayers an estimated $20 billion each year  School dropouts cost our nation $240 billion in social service expenditures and lost tax revenues

Impact on Society:

 3 out of 5 people in American prisons can’t read  To determine how many prison beds will be needed in future years, some states actually base part of their projection on how well current elementary students are performing on reading tests  85% of juvenile offenders have problems reading  Approximately 50% of Americans read so poorly that they are unable to perform simple tasks such as reading prescription drug labels

(Source: National Institute for Literacy, National Center for Adult Literacy, The Literacy Company, U.S. Census Bureau) http://literacyprojectfoundation.org/community/statistics/

Percentage of persons 14 years old and over who were illiterate (unable to read or write in any language), by race and nativity: 1870 to 1979

Year Total White Black and other Total Native Foreign-born 1870 20.0 11.5 – – 79.9 1880 17.0 9.4 8.7 12.0 70.0 1890 13.3 7.7 6.2 13.1 56.8 1900 10.7 6.2 4.6 12.9 44.5 1910 7.7 5.0 3.0 12.7 30.5 1920 6.0 4.0 2.0 13.1 23.0 1930 4.3 3.0 1.6 10.8 16.4 1940 2.9 2.0 1.1 9.0 11.5 1947 2.7 1.8 – – 11.0 1950 3.2 – – – – 1952 2.5 1.8 – – 10.2 1959 2.2 1.6 – – 7.5 1969 1.0 0.7 – – 3.6 * 1979 0.6 0.4 – – 1.6 * * Based on black population only SOURCE: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970; and Current Population Reports, Series P-23, Ancestry and Language in the United States: November 1979. (This table was prepared in September 1992.)

For the later part of this century the illiteracy rates have been relatively low, registering only about 4 percent as early as 1930. However, in the late 19th century and early 20th century, illiteracy was very common. In 1870, 20 percent of the entire adult population was illiterate, and 80 percent of the black population was illiterate. By 1900 the situation had improved somewhat, but still 44 percent of blacks remained illiterate. The statistical data show significant improvements for black and other races in the early portion of the 20th century as the former slaves who had no educational opportunities in their youth were replaced by younger individuals who grew up in the post Civil War period and often had some chance to obtain a basic education. The gap in illiteracy between white and black adults continued to narrow through the 20th century, and in 1979 the rates were about the same.

The U.S. Illiteracy Rate Hasn't Changed In 10 Years Posted: 09/06/2013

Sunday is International Literacy Day! We recommend taking the opportunity to curl up with a warm cup of coffee, a comfy chair, and a favorite classic. Of course, this holiday is bittersweet - We know we'll be celebrating accordingly, but many Americans won't be able to do so. According to a study conducted in late April by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute of Literacy, 32 million adults in the U.S. can't read. That's 14 percent of the population. 21 percent of adults in the U.S. read below a 5th grade level, and 19 percent of high school graduates can't read. The current literacy rate isn't any better than it was 10 years ago. According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (completed most recently in 2003, and before that, in 1992), 14 percent of adult Americans demonstrated a "below basic" literacy level in 2003, and 29 percent exhibited a "basic" reading level. We probably don't need to spell out the benefits of reading and writing for you. Economic security, access to health care, and the ability to actively participate in civic life all depend on an individual's ability to read.

According to the Department of Justice, "The link between academic failure and delinquency, violence, and crime is welded to reading failure." The stats back up this claim: 85 percent of all juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate, and over 70 percent of inmates in America's prisons cannot read above a fourth grade level, according to BeginToRead.com.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/06/illiteracy-rate_n_3880355.html BEN CARSON HIGHLIGHTS SCHOOL SUCCESS IN ALABAMA By Quin Hillyer November 23, 2015 When you’re a journalist who sits on the board of an impressive inner-city school, you know it’s a conflict of interest to write about the school professionally.

But when a presidential candidate visits the school to cite it as a national exemplar for great education, well, darn it, that’s real news — and you, the board member/journalist, are perfectly positioned to tell the story.

So let me admit my bias right up front in writing that Dr. Ben Carson is right: Prichard Prep School near Mobile, Alabama, now consisting of 154 students from pre-K through fifth grade, is a remarkable success story from which conservatives, and indeed school reformers of all ideological persuasions, can and should take lessons.

Prichard, which borders Mobile, is an overwhelmingly black and largely impoverished city that has been in and out of municipal bankruptcy twice in the past 15 years. But a local pastor and grandmother, Ruby Eldridge, had a vision. In 2007, she approached Mobile businessman and civic leader Sandy Stimpson, a former board chairman of a leading private school, and said she wanted his help.

“She said that the children in Prichard are just as smart as the children going to Mobile’s best schools, and we need to give them a chance,” said Stimpson, who now is the spectacularly reformist first-term mayor of Mobile. “It was like a lightning bolt for me: the conviction that she was right and this was something I should really support.”

So together, Eldridge and Stimpson founded the private, non-denominational Christian, Prichard Prep, not knowing “where the money would come from, where the teachers would come from, or anything,” as Stimpson now says.

But they found a way. Within just a few years, the school had found a home at a former Prichard police station and was gaining notice for its students’ academic achievements. By now, those achievements are not just remarkable, but bordering on stunning.

The children come largely from families with high aspirations but very little accumulated wealth: 94 percent of them are eligible for the federal free- or reduced-lunch program, and every one of them is African-American. But now they read at an average of a year-and-a-quarter above their grade levels, and their average SAT10 Reading and Mathematics assessments place them above 73 percent of all students nationwide. (In 2009, the school’s students had been way down in the 30th percentile.) Amazingly, even though the school runs only through fifth grade, 12 students last April placed post-high-school scores in more than three subjects.

And in the respected, national DimensionU interactive educational games, Prichard Prep in the past four years has repeatedly ranked first, second or third (and almost always in the top 10) in the entire country (and at this writing leads not in points but in growth).

Numerous factors play in role in this remarkable success....

… “First, it’s having quality teachers who care passionately about what they do,” said Lorie Minor, who took over as principal this year after the founding principal retired. “They don’t mind coming to school early and staying late to help intervene with students who may be falling behind.”

Second, Minor said, “most of our parents are invested in having the students eventually receive a college education, graduating from college and then coming back to their community and giving back to that community.” Third, the school concentrates on developing good character in a gently faith-based context. Minor described it as “the spirit that Pastor Ruby from the very start instilled here, asking for people who love the Lord to lead students to become good citizens.”

Ruby Eldridge also began with one key insight — an insight that can and should apply not just to schools but also to almost every communal endeavor.

“Everybody must have some skin in the game,” Stimpson remembers Eldridge telling him when she first outlined her vision to him. If financially struggling parents pay at least a little bit, Eldridge told him, they will be personally invested in the school’s success. And that investment, Stimpson said, has made a world of difference.

Toward that end, parents pay $50 a week — about what most of them shelled out for day care when their children were toddlers. The $2,000 annual assessment covers only about a quarter of the school’s total cost per child, but it has helped make Prichard Prep a place where parents are active, proud participants in their children’s education.

The rest of the money is raised privately, from individual donations and foundation grants — and now, in a godsend to the school, from a superb new program the state Legislature passed in 2013, allowing state income-tax payers to redirect a certain portion of their tax payments to scholarships for low-income students.

Yes, Prichard Prep preceded the Opportunity Scholarship program. But this wise public policy — a version of school choice — is allowing the school to grow. Until two years ago, Prichard Prep could afford only one class of 15 students per grade. Now the school is adding a second class year-by-year, starting with pre-school and now including first grade, too, until, four years from now, it will boast two classes all the way through fifth grade.

These are students otherwise relegated to failing, or near-failing, public schools, but who now have a chance — at significantly lower overall cost-per-pupil — to receive an education as good as anywhere in the country….

… “I was encouraged when I observed the good that can happen when people take ownership of the educational enterprise and the community really gets involved,” he added.

But the last words should go to Pastor Eldridge, who said the national attention from Dr. Carson and others is exciting but “can kind of give you a big head, if you’re not careful.” Forgive the lengthy quotation, but she’s worth it:

“The school was birthed in prayer. I began to see these kids dropping through the cracks with no help and no hope. And I knew if we could just get a little school started privately, it would motivate them. I also think love and kindness and played a part. We went out and really found people who love this school, and we have to come together with just one thing in mind: the children and their education. Right now our communities have too much of an entitlement mentality, and we have to replace that with education. That is what will pull them out of what they are in, with no self-esteem and no hope. Now, so many of these kids are going to break out of that hole.”

Quin Hillyer is a contributor for Opportunity Lives. He is a 40-year veteran of conservative journalism and activism, now living in Mobile, Alabama. You can follow him on Twitter @QuinHillyer. http://opportunitylives.com/ben-carson-highlights-school-success-in- alabama/?utm_source=Website+Signup&utm_campaign=34d7a987a7- Weekly_Newsletter_11_20_15&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9d0b6d1324-34d7a987a7-343924497 Why Not Teach Intensive Phonics?

The intensive-phonics method has been proved successful everywhere it has been used. Many experienced teachers and administrators testify to its effectiveness. Mary L. Burkhardt, director of the Department of Reading (K-12), City School District Rochester, New York, tells about the tremendous results achieved when she got rid of the look- say and eclectic (combination phonics and sight-reading) programs and replaced them with intensive phonics programs.

When I entered the district in 1966, the student population was 40,000 (40 percent minority). Now it is 35,000 (57 percent minority). I am sure that you have often heard it said that the percentage of children who are minority influences the degree of reading failure in a given school or district. Reality is that whether children are “advantaged” or “disadvantaged,” black or white, rich or poor, does not have anything to do with how successfully children learn to read. Based on my professional experiences, such statements are only excuses for not teaching children to read….

…At that time, only look-say and eclectic programs (not phonics-first) were used in the school…. In spite of the teachers’ hard work and the children’s readiness and willingness to learn, children were having trouble learning to read. In fact, remedial readers were being generated in my school faster than I could remediate them.

Five years later (after replacing the old reading programs with three phonics-first programs). Rochester’s students are readers. Our students’ average reading performance is above grade level at grade one and at grade level in grades 2 through 6 as measured by the Metropolitan Reading Achievement Test. Please note that this test measures reading comprehension. This is a dramatic change from only five years ago when one of the major topics of conversation was the number of non-readers in our schools. Today, students automatically decode logically, systematically, and successfully. This enables them to use their energy to read for meaning and understanding, which of course is the ultimate purpose and joy of reading.14 https://www.abeka.com/Resources/Articles/WhyNotTeachIntensivePhonics.aspx

How ‘twisted’ early childhood education has become — from a child development expert By Valerie Strauss November 24 (Reuters) Nancy Carlsson-Paige is an early childhood development expert who has been at the forefront of the debate on how best to educate — and not educate — the youngest students. She is a professor emerita of education at Lesley University in Cambridge, Ma., where she taught teachers for more than 30 years and was a founder of the university’s Center for Peaceable Schools. She is also a founding member of a nonprofit called Defending the Early Years, which commissions research about early childhood education and advocates for sane policies for young children. Carlsson-Paige is author of “Taking Back Childhood.” The mother of two artist sons, Matt and Kyle Damon, she is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the Legacy Award from the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps for work over several decades on behalf of children and families. She was just given the Deborah Meier award by the nonprofit National Center for Fair and Open Testing. In her speech accepting the award (named after the renowned educator Deborah Meier), Carlsson-Paige describes what has happened in the world of early childhood education in the current era of high-stakes testing, saying, “Never in my wildest dreams could I have foreseen the situation we find ourselves in today.” Here’s the speech, which I am publishing with permission: Thank you FairTest for this Deborah Meier Hero in Education Award. FairTest does such great advocacy and education around fair and just testing practices. This award carries the name of one of my heroes in education, Deborah Meier—she’s a force for justice and democracy in education. I hope that every time this award is given, it will allow us to once again pay tribute to Deb. Also, I feel privileged to be accepting this honor alongside Lani Guinier. When I was invited to be here tonight, I thought about the many people who work for justice and equity in education who could also be standing here. So I am thinking of all of them now and I accept this award on their behalf — all the educators dedicated to children and what’s fair and best for them. It’s wonderful to see all of you here — so many family and friends, comrades in this struggle to reclaim excellent public education for all – not just some – of our children. I have loved my life’s work – teaching teachers about how young children think, how they learn, how they develop socially, emotionally, morally. I’ve been fascinated with the theories and science of my field and seeing it expressed in the actions and the play of children. So never in my wildest dreams could I have foreseen the situation we find ourselves in today. Where education policies that do not reflect what we know about how young children learn could be mandated and followed. We have decades of research in child development and neuroscience that tell us that young children learn actively — they have to move, use their senses, get their hands on things, interact with other kids and teachers, create, invent. But in this twisted time, young children starting public pre-K at the age of 4 are expected to learn through “rigorous instruction.” And never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that we would have to defend children’s right to play. Play is the primary engine of human growth; it’s universal – as much as walking and talking. Play is the way children build ideas and how they make sense of their experience and feel safe. Just look at all the math concepts at work in the intricate buildings of kindergartners. Or watch a 4-year-old put on a cape and pretend to be a superhero after witnessing some scary event. But play is disappearing from classrooms. Even though we know play is learning for young kids, we are seeing it shoved aside to make room for academic instruction and “rigor.” I could not have foreseen in my wildest dreams that we would have to fight for classrooms for young kids that are developmentally appropriate. Instead of active, hands-on learning, children now sit in chairs for far too much time getting drilled on letters and numbers. Stress levels are up among young kids. Parents and teachers tell me: children worry that they don’t know the right answers; they have nightmares, they pull out their eyelashes, they cry because they don’t want to go to school. Some people call this child abuse and I can’t disagree. I could not have foreseen in my wildest dreams that we would be up against pressure to test and assess young kids throughout the year often in great excess — often administering multiple tests to children in kindergarten and even pre-K. Now, when young children start school, they often spend their first days not getting to know their classroom and making friends. They spend their first days getting tested. Here are words from one mother as this school year began: “My daughter’s first day of kindergarten — her very first introduction to elementary school — consisted almost entirely of assessment. She was due at school at 9:30, and I picked her up at 11:45. In between, she was assessed by five different teachers, each a stranger, asking her to perform some task. “By the time I picked her up, she did not want to talk about what she had done in school, but she did say that she did not want to go back. She did not know the teachers’ names. She did not make any friends. Later that afternoon, as she played with her animals in her room, I overheard her drilling them on their numbers and letters.” The most important competencies in young children can’t be tested—we all know this. Naming letters and numbers is superficial and almost irrelevant in relation to the capacities we want to help children develop: self- regulation, problem solving ability, social and emotional competence, imagination, initiative, curiosity, original thinking — these capacities make or break success in school and life and they can’t be reduced to numbers. Yet these days, all the money and resources, the time dedicated to professional development, they go to tooling teachers up to use the required assessments. Somehow the data gleaned from these tests is supposed to be more valid than a teacher’s own ability to observe children and understand their skills in the context of their whole development in the classroom. The first time I saw for myself what was becoming of many of the nation’s early childhood classrooms was when I visited a program in a low-income community in north Miami. Most of the children were on free- and reduced-price lunch. There were 10 classrooms – kindergarten and pre-K. The program’s funding depended on test scores, so — no surprise — teachers taught to the test. Kids who got low scores, I was told, got extra drills in reading and math and didn’t get to go to art. They used a computer program to teach 4- and 5-year-olds how to “bubble.” One teacher complained to me that some children go outside the lines. In one of the kindergartens I visited, the walls were barren and so was the whole room. The teacher was testing one little boy at a computer at the side of the room. There was no classroom aide. The other children were sitting at tables copying words from the chalk board. The words were: “No talking. Sit in your seat. Hands to Yourself.” The teacher kept shouting at them from her testing corner: Be quiet! No talking! Most of the children looked scared or disengaged, and one little boy was sitting alone. He was quietly crying. I will never forget how these children looked or how it felt to watch them, I would say, suffering in this context that was such a profound mismatch with their needs. It’s in low-income, under-resourced communities like this one where children are most subjected to heavy doses of teacher-led drills and tests. Not like in wealthier suburbs where kids have the opportunity to go to early childhood programs that have play, the arts, and project-based learning. It’s poverty — the elephant in the room — that is the root cause of this disparity. A few months ago, I was alarmed to read a report from the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights showing that more than 8,000 children from public preschools across the country were suspended at least once in a school year, many more than once. First of all, who suspends a preschooler? Why and for what? The very concept is bizarre and awful. But 8,000? And then to keep reading the report to see that a disproportionate number of those suspended preschoolers were low income, black boys. There is a connection, I know, between these suspensions and ed reform policies: Children in low-income communities are enduring play deficient classrooms where they get heavy doses of direct teaching and testing. They have to sit still, be quiet in their seats and comply. Many young children can’t do this and none should have to. I came home from that visit to the classrooms in North Miami in despair. But fortunately, the despair turned quickly to organizing. With other educators we started our nonprofit Defending the Early Years. We have terrific early childhood leaders with us (some are here tonight: Deb Meier, Geralyn McLaughlin, Diane Levin and Ayla Gavins). We speak in a unified voice for young children. We publish reports, write op eds, make videos and send them out on YouTube, we speak and do interviews every chance we get. We’ve done it all on a shoestring. It’s almost comical: The Gates Foundation has spent more than $200 million just to promote the Common Core. Our budget at Defending the Early Years is .006 percent of that. We collaborate with other organizations. FairTest has been so helpful to us. And we also collaborate with – Network for Public Education, United Opt Out, many parent groups, Citizens for Public Schools, Badass Teachers, Busted Pencils Radio, Save Our Schools, Alliance for Childhood and ECE PolicyWorks —There’s a powerful network out there – of educators, parents and students — and we see the difference we are making. We all share a common vision: Education is a human right and every child deserves one. An excellent, free education where learning is meaningful – with arts, play, engaging projects, and the chance to learn citizenship skills so that children can one day participate — actively and consciously – in this increasingly fragile democracy.

Valerie Strauss covers education and runs The Answer Sheet blog. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/11/24/how-twisted-early-childhood-education-has- become-from-a-child-development-expert/?tid=pm_local_pop_b