MODESTO, CA (June 5, 2009)- The recently released Great Valley Center report Early Education for the Next Generation: Pre-School Readiness in the San Joaquin Valley presents the facts on children in the San Joaquin Valley having severely limited access to quality preschool despite an overwhelming need for early childhood education and the immense benefits the region would reap from increased opportunities for pre-kindergarten education.
The report, available to be downloaded at www.greatvalley.org, examines the current challenges to preschool education access in the region, specifically a serious lack of spaces for enrollment in current preschool programs (59 percent of all public preschool programs in the region have an active wait list), a lack of preschool facilities for children who need preschool the most (six San Joaquin Valley Counties would fail to accommodate children in the most needy school districts), and the lack of affordable preschool choices for those in the region that would greatly benefit from pre-kindergarten education (the annual shortfall for families in the San Joaquin Valley making the median income, maintaining a household, and sending a child to part-time preschool ranges from $1,160 to $9,712).
Great Valley Center on the issue of preschool:“So many sectors in our community agree on the importance of early childhood education, from educators, to law enforcement, to employers,” commented Manuel Alvarado, Great Valley Center program manager and co-author of the report. “We now must figure out how all of these sectors with an interest in quality early childhood education can start working together to make it a priority for our region.”
Materials and Resources:
→ Download the full press release
→ Download the report: Early Education for the Next Generation: Pre-School Readiness in the San Joaquin Valley
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