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A retooled state-funded early childhood education system in Ohio should benefit all children, regardless of family wealth, a state panel recommended on Friday.
The School Readiness Solutions Group, which wrapped up 14 months of work on a report containing 10 recommendations, also had considered a less costly system that would have reached just the neediest in an effort to have an impact on an obvious symptom of the cycle of poverty.
"There are many children from very affluent families going into kindergarten that are not well prepared," said Carl Kohrt, the panel's chairman.
The report, however, does not say how much the sweeping changes will cost. Instead, the panel hopes to pressure the legislature to fall in line by implementing parts of the plan while enlisting heads of key state agencies -- such as Job & Family Services and Health -- as its allies in the upcoming state budget process.
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Other suggestions include: mandatory all-day kindergarten; requiring preschool teachers to have college degrees; subjecting all preschools and child-care businesses to stricter licensing standards; and operating all functions of early education out of one state agency.
Kohrt says it is all based on national research that suggests investing in early childhood education can help lower state costs for remedial help in K-12 and for social services for adults and families.
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- reprinted from the Cleveland Plain Dealer