I was asked tonight about my thoughts on early childhood education in this time of COVID-19. Here are my thoughts in response to that question.
Considering that both the health and economic impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic will have deep and significant effects on families, the reduced revenue stream will no doubt adversely affect the state's budget. It will be necessary for the legislature to be not just involved but deeply engaged in prioritizing early childhood education in a meaningful and effective way. I believe that forming an expanded coalition between the state and community-based organizations to weed out unnecessary regulations and programs that may sap the fiscal lifeblood from programs such as EACAP, or HeadStart, or any other early learning program should be a top priority. With the varied effects of COVID-19 on different communities across the state, it will take intimate knowledge of local communities rather than a broad statewide plan to be truly beneficial to the children, their young siblings, and families in general. Policies that may work well in urban or suburban communities may develop issues in more widespread and economically depressed rural areas that lack many of the support infrastructures that more urban programs consider essential. As someone who was an employee of Lewis County HeadStart for several years, I have a uniquely personal set of experiences and perspectives on these issues. It would seem to me that, especially in the more rural areas, it may be of benefit to find a way to form a liaison with community organizations and businesses that can assist families to become not just involved in their child's early education but to find ways to become actively involved in participating and promoting the programs within the community. Without this form of engagement, it can become far too costly to have an effective program in many of these more remote and economically depressed communities. Which can be the very places most in need of the services and programs for the children and their families. There should be enough rigidity to the paradigm that the basic structure will work across the state, yet enough flexibility to be easily adapted as needed to meet the broad needs of individual communities.
