Early Childhood Education and Prevention: Will Legislators wake up?

I am on a high horse this morning! I just finished reading several articles and I am needless to say a little miffed. Living in the state of South Carolina, we have always been behind everyone else in everything. Our education budget has been slashed to ribbons, the expectations grow higher and we have some of the toughest state standards to teach. There are those who think we do not do enough and there are those who praise us, but those of us in the trenches feel downtrodden, unappreciated, overworked, and confused as to what is really expected of us. THEN I read these two articles:

    Early Education a Crime-Fighting Weapon?

Large-scale early education linked to higher living standards and crime prevention 25 years later

I have been preaching that early childhood education and parent involvement in the early years was so important for years and when I say years, I am saying all of my 32 years of teaching (maybe less five for the first five years when I was growing as a teacher). I have watched the pendulum of education swing from one end to the other and yet never seen legislators or administrators stop it at a happy medium. When will we wake up and learn that reaching a young child and helping his/her parents know how to help him/her makes for a whole child and helps our society raise children who become successful, capable beings. Please read these two articles and pass them on to administrators, legislators, people of influence within your community. Let this be a wake-up call to others that "reach and teach them" young is so valuable to our communities, our states, our nation!