Desde el mundo político, empresarial y académico, junto con los mejores profesionales de los sectores público y privado, cientos se reunieron en el centro de Los Ángeles el 20 de octubre para dar la bienvenida al Secretario de Educación de los Estados Unidos, Arne Duncan, durante su gira nacional en apoyo de La agenda de aprendizaje temprano del presidente Obama.
Speaking at the “Children: LA’s Greatest Investment” forum, held at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Duncan pointed out the disparities between the way our government invest in early education versus around the world.
“We rank somewhere between 20th and 25th in regards to providing high-quality, early learning opportunities to children between the ages of 0-5, and that is not a badge of honor,” said Duncan. “We should be ashamed. It’s our duty to give our children the chance to embrace a great start.”
El foro examinó la calidad del aprendizaje temprano y las políticas públicas para apoyar la educación de la primera infancia. Expertos en educación, filantropía, gobierno y la comunidad empresarial discutieron la agenda de aprendizaje temprano del presidente Obama y los esfuerzos en el condado de Los Ángeles para apoyar el aprendizaje temprano.
First 5 LA Executive Director Kim Belshé, who took part in the Policy and Early Learning Agenda panel, addressed the continuous challenges in sustaining funding for early care and education.
“I’ve worked for two governors and I can tell you meaningful and measureable policy changes by and large is when governors are putting their thumb on an issue and saying ‘this needs to happen,'” said Belshé. “The governor has been a reluctant partner as it relates to investments in quality early learning, so together we have work to do across multiple sectors, to help the governor and others understand that this isn’t expensive babysitting — this is an essential investment in our children.”
Cuando miras a la justicia juvenil, estás viendo que estamos invirtiendo cientos de millones de dólares al final, pero lo que deberíamos hacer es invertir al principio. -Alex Johnson
Alex Johnson, director ejecutivo de la Fondo de defensa de los niños, también señaló que se necesitaba un cambio de paradigma para brindar oportunidades de aprendizaje temprano a todos los niños.
“We should not be simply focusing on providing early care and education to the few, or the deserving, but looking at it as one of the core fundamentals pieces in order to develop the whole child,” said Johnson. “When you look at juvenile justice, you’re seeing that we are investing hundreds of millions of dollars at the back end, but what we should be doing is investing at the front end.”
The event concluded with smaller group discussions about how to successfully move the early learning agenda across the county. “The most important thing we can do for this country is invest in high quality early childhood education,” continued Duncan. “And I want to talk about the opportunity here for the LA community –the amount of talent, the level of commitment, the amount of collaboration might be unprecedented.”
El evento fue presentado por LA n Sync, LAUP, First 5 LA, LA Area Chamber of Commerce, Advancement Project, Scholastic y la California Community Foundation.
