Madeleine Thakur: Florida’s vital focus on our youngest learners

The too often ignored reality for Florida’s education system: If you start behind, it’s hard to catch up.

Indeed, fully half of children entering kindergarten in Florida today are deemed “not ready” to be there. By third grade, only 3% more are reading at grade level. It would be hard to think of much that would be more important for every Florida adult to know.

The first five years are critical — when loving, back-and-forth interactions with caregivers at home and in preschool help children learn the basics and develop foundational skills. Whatever you might read about Florida’s education system (good or bad), it is the steps being taken to create a world-class early learning system that will define the future of our state.

These steps began more than two decades ago, as Florida became one of the first three states in the nation to pass universal pre-K.

Our Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program (VPK) now serves more than 150,000 students each year but has been accompanied by questions about both quality and effectiveness. To address those questions, the Florida Legislature has prioritized bringing meaningful standards and increased investments to these classrooms — a commitment that continued during the 2023 Legislative Session.

Policies focused on child care regulations and parents’ access to information are making their way to the Governor’s desk. In the 2023-2024 state budget just signed, Florida again saw more investment in our youngest learners, including:

— $100 million increase to ongoing funding for Florida’s subsidized child care program.

— $77 million to ensure communities can sustain current enrollment levels among working families.

— An increase of $2.6 million to expand Help Me Grow, a parent resource program championed by The Children’s Movement.

— An additional $138 per child for Florida’s Pre-K program, totaling more than $20 million statewide.

— The distribution of more than $315 million in federal dollars to allow local communities to address regional needs.

— $10 million of recurring funds to support the T.E.A.C.H. scholarship for early learning professionals to seek higher education.

These policies and investments are critical as Florida’s state-funded early learning system faces challenges and opportunities in the year to come. Just two years ago, early learning was housed outside the realm of education.

Today, the Division of Early Learning sits rightfully within the Department of Education, with a Chancellor for Early Learning presiding alongside chancellors for K-12 and higher education. This further underscores the critical nature of early learning as a critical part, indeed as the foundation, of the education continuum.

Much more needs to be done. We must continue to focus on early childhood teachers, ensuring they can grow in their careers and not suffer a system with low wages and high turnover. We must address the rates being paid to early learning centers, ensuring that they have the resources they need to provide quality care to all children. We must increase the eligibility for subsidized child care to match the economic realities of our state and not penalize two-parent households.

And we must make sure that all parents have access to early learning and care that meets their needs — whether that be center-based, home-based, work-based, or 24-hour care.

As Florida continues to grow, our focus on early learning will become even more critical — for the workforce of today and the workforce of tomorrow. It is about building a Florida where opportunity thrives.

We — The Children’s Movement of Florida — have been at the forefront of these policy initiatives for more than a decade.

Our Board Chair, David Lawrence Jr., led the campaign (with then-Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas) to bring universal Pre-K to Florida. As the new CEO of The Movement, I am proud to continue building on the foundation of progress and pleased to work with parents, educators, business leaders, and others all across the state to create a roadmap for early learning, looking ahead to 2024 and beyond.

___

Madeleine K. Thakur is president and CEO of The Children’s Movement of Florida, the state’s leading voice on early childhood issues, advocating to make Florida the best place for young children to live and to thrive.