U.S. Education Secretary Asks Business Leaders to Help Secure Early Education Funding

Duncan told business leaders attending a summit held by the Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students (GEEARS) that the average child from a disadvantaged community starts kindergarten at least a year behind.

“And then we wonder why we have achievement gaps, we wonder why we have dropout rates. We have to get out of the catch-up business.”

Duncan says to compete globally, the U.S. has to spend more on early childhood education, and he says it’s already happening in a number of states.

“You have many governors, the majority of whom happen to be Republican now, who in tough economic times are investing real money into early childhood education, including right here in Georgia.“

But Duncan says to increase spending access states need more federal support. He says the administration wants to see a bipartisan bill in Washington that would significantly increase early childhood education funding and double the number of children who can participate in a full-day Pre-Kindergarten program of high quality. However, Duncan admits that won’t be easy. That’s why he’s calling on business leaders to help make the funding possible by reaching out to moderate Republican lawmakers.

“The business community is uniquely positioned to help to create the climate and the support and the safety quite frankly for moderate Republicans to say this is the right thing for children, this is the right thing for my community. This is the right thing for the country.”

If the funding were approved, Duncan says it would be the biggest gift he and President Obama could give the country, not for the remainder of time the President has left in office, but for the next three or four decades.