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Early childhood education took the spotlight yesterday, thanks to an article by the Associated Press, which looks at recent efforts to expand access to and quality of pre-K programs. One of the initiatives highlighted by the article is the Parent Aware rating system, a pilot program which has helped parents identify high-quality pre-K options for their children. A few weeks ago we asked you to take action because the House had cut support for the Parent Aware program from its version of the education finance omnibus bill. The members of the conference committee, who are in charge of reconciling the House and Senate versions of the education finance omnibus bill, have it in their power to maintaing the provision in the Senate version of the bill that supports the Parent Aware rating system.
So far the conference committee hasn't taken any action on that part of the bill, but that doesn't mean you can't. Write a letter to them and tell the committee to keep support for a pre-K rating system. Everyone agrees that high-quality pre-K plays a critical role in closing the achievement gap, and it's up to us as advocates to make sure that politics as usual doesn't get in the way of giving our kids what they deserve.