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Subscribe to RSSDECATUR, Ga. -- Continuing his post-State of the Union tour, President Barack Obama today made an economic case for the early childhood initiatives he unveiled in his primetime speech, telling a crowd in this Atlanta suburb that investments in such programs are “a good bang for your educational buck.”
The president’s education proposals include national universal pre-school enrollment and a new collaboration between the federal Early Head Start program, which is focused on the development of very young low-income children, and childcare facilities.
And in his speech at a recreation center here, Obama singled out the nearby College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center, which he visited during his stop to the state, as an example of the types of state-federal partnerships that can boost the quality of life for low-income children well after preschool.
“The kids we saw today, that I had a chance to spend time with -- they're some of the lucky ones, because fewer than three in 10 four-year-olds are enrolled in a high-quality preschool program.”
Evan Vucci / AP
President Barack Obama runs up the stairs as he arrives for a speech on education, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013, at the Decatur Community Recreation Center in Decatur, Ga.
The president said that such early investment in the future of children -- of all economic levels -- leads to a more vibrant economy overall. “That's not just going to make sure that they do well. That will strengthen our economy and our country for all of us,” he said.
He praised Georgia, one of only five states to have an official goal of full preschool enrollment, in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, saying the state “make[s] it a priority to educate our youngest children.”
But Georgia, which made a commitment to universal pre-K in 1995, still only has about 60 percent enrollment, and has had to cut back funding and school days because of budget shortfalls -- the program is funded by lottery revenues which have slowed recently.
Twenty days of the pre-kindergarten year were removed this year due to budget cuts, which resulted in an exodus of qualified teachers. Now, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (R) is proposing adding back 10 of those days according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Obama gave a nod to the state’s difficulty in funding the program, saying that “even in times of tight budgets,” Georgia and states like it have “worked to make a preschool slot available for nearly every parent who's looking for one for their child.”
In terms of how the federal program would be funded, the Obama administration has not yet given specifics of how much its proposals would cost. The New Republic magazine speculated that the program might resemble one proposed by the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, whose preschool program costs $10 billion per year and Early Head Start-child care initiative would cost $10.5 billion per year.
But the program will be revenue-neutral, deputy National Economic Council director Jason Furman maintained yesterday, because it will not cost as much as the administration’s spending cuts implemented last year.
In addition to laying out his vision for America’s education future, President Obama also had a few words of advice for the parents of young children -- raising a few eyebrows as he seemed to suggest one of his daughters might have begun going on dates.
“I do have to warn the parents who are here who still have young kids, they grow up to be, like, 5 [feet] 10 [inches]. And even if they're still nice to you, they -- they basically don't have a lot of time for you during the weekends. They have sleepovers and dates. So all that early investment just leaves them to go away,” he joked as the crowd laughed.
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Barry is locked into perpetual campaign mode...still trying to sell his drivel....actually,i would hope,he stays in the mode until he reaches the end of another pointless term...he has accomplished nothing,it is the only plus to his presidency...hang on,america..and remember,he doesnt want to"sell" anything..he doesnt care what you think,anyway...
24/7 campaign mode. Thats about it. I didn't like romney cause he wasn't trustworthy with his comments or the side deals you know he had going. But this guy is incompetent so its a wash. At least with OBama, you know he is not capable of anything worthwhile and the repubs seeth in his very narcissitic attitude toward things.
I am a Vietnam vet and the more I hear of this GOP (Guys w/Out PeePees) stupidity the more I plan on spending to help the Democrats win. Talk about flip floppers, these guys are the Toys for Tot's group. We need to give them baby rattlers and put them in play pens. But before we do that I guess we need change their diapers.
can he talk to anyone but gullible young people and freeloaders?
Sounds like Obama wants our children in government indoctrination schools from birth on.
Another 2.5% INCREASE for Obummer's 2013 DOE budget.
Hell, we don't have a spending problem, right Pelozi? We have a "revenue" problem.
No longer do the libtards call it "TAX AND SPEND"....it's "REVENUE AND INVEST"....
We already spend far more than any country in the world per capita for education, and rank among the lowest....
Gee....
Ya think the SYSTEM might be broke? Hell no...the libs say we're not INVESTING enough!
The level of sheer retardation, just amazes me. When a program or agency doesn't deliver on results, it's always because we're not INVESTING enough....
We need the Federal Government to get the hell out of the way.
Every poll shows voters want smaller government.
Every poll shows voters want the Federal Government to CUT spending.
So why in the hell did they vote for this ass in the Oval Office, AGAIN?
You see my dear comrade Lenin, it's very easy to do, first you separate the young children from their parents for just a few hours a day, then later more hours. Then you inculcate them with marxist philosophy and produce an army of young zealots willing to do your nefarious bidding including reporting their capitalist parents to the authorities! It's all been done before, the Turks did it with Jewish children (Jannisairies) Hitler did it with the Hitler youth, Lenin and Stalin did it with the Soviet youth! " Those who refuse to learn from history are forever doomed to repeat it" George Santyana !
I teach Georgia pre-k, and this article is mistaken in the changes to our calendar. Last school year, 2011-2012, our calendar was cut by 20 teaching days. This year, 10 days were reinstated. Governor Deal's proposal would reinstate the other 10 days for the 2013-2014 school year, returning us to a full, 180-day, schedule.
With the State of Delusion speech Obama gave a couple of nights ago; he has surpassed the previous record held for lying by a President.
Another "first" for the most incompetent president ever
We have been doing these programs for over 30 years now and we have a 50% drop out rate and are next to last in the world in education. Not very effective. Look back on where we were BEFORE the Department of Education was ever invented. All this money has been wasted and in the process what use to be one of the best school systems in the world is ruined.
Don't we have a program like this already, the Head Start Program? How much money is wasted a year on this silly *ss program? These kids spend how many hours at school to return back home to ignorance, decay,and violence? When will you folks admit that regardless of the money spent on a child's education if the parent(s) is not engaged it is wasted? Indeed, this may make some feel all warm and fuzzy, but like most programs like this, it is a waste of time and money!!! Not until that ghetto culture is addressed and people decide to no longer participate in it, will their children want to learn and become responsible, contributing citizens. Once again, ya'll being played for fools!!!! It just amazes me that people are still so naive and gullible.
Yep. Then they can get foreign student aid like Obama did, go to Harvard because they are black, and get elected president because they are black, not because they are good for the country. Oh, and by the way, Obama wants to give more of our tax dollars to illegals who live here but don't pay taxes. What a sleaze he is. Certainly not good for America (maybe for the muslim or Kenya)
Nothing more than fee daycare on the backs of the tax payer. I can't believe people are still buying the story about how beneficial early education is. It is beneficial, but not when administered this way.
Herding kids into day care centers is the same as cows herded in a pen and provides about as much advancement in education for the kids as the cows are getting.
Right!! Free (I'm assuming you meant free) daycare.....all the science that goes into the malleability of the brain in the first five years doesn't mean anything. Give me a break.
What way should it be 'administered' then? Do you mean with teachers and students?
What science shows is that the first 7 years are critical in many ways. It does not show that those years should be spent in a daycare but rather with parents. It also further shows that gains made are generally lost or evened out by 3rd grade.
Turning your child over to the gov't at an early age is the wrong thing to do.
What do you wanna bet the curriculum of these new "indoctrination centers", will include songs and "story time" about "our dear leader"?
Another Obama "tour" from our "campaigner-in-chief" who forgot HE already BOUGHT the election, and needs to spend some time behind the desk leading.
But as someone so aptly up it, "leaders lead and community organizers organize".
Holy cow Mushroomhead....you are more crazy than I thought.
No, because then he is "cutting deals behind closed doors". If he stays in Washington to work with Congress you bozos hit him on that....if he is out talking to the constituents, then he is "campaigning". You people are so transparent it is embarrassing.
No, because then he is "cutting deals behind closed doors, Call it for what they are "Bribes" not deals, you now like the Obama care bribes.
What Obama should have said- So all that early investment just leaves them to go away. Yep little kiddies you will need to get out there and get a job so you can pay off your parents massive debt, but don't worry I will give you a Free Obama phone,” Obama joked as the crowd laughed.
Pharaoh bama want's us to pay for baby sitters now.In the thirties they had Hitler Youth,brainwash them early.
Sounds like a 60% "bang for the buck", or as many of us would say, a misfire.
The Hallmark of a Strong Nation is a Strong Education System and a Strong Military. May the USA enhance its education system for the Poor Americans and Give Education to all the Americans at a young Age so that American as a Nation is Strong Financially, Economically and Militarily and Free from Debt. GOD Bless the Americans. GOD BLESS THE USA.
Kevin Valentine Moraes
Mira Road (Thane)
What he needs to be doing is running a campaign to train his people in compassion, self respect, and hard work. He and Michelle were so stupid for showcasing that 102 black woman standing in line for 4 hours to vote.. What they did by show casing her is showing what a true Democratic district is like. All for me and none for you. If that was a Republican district, that woman would have been shown compassion and pushed to the front of the line. The fact that her fellow Democratic blacks let her stay in line that long says it all. Sad state of things when fellow Americans don't show compassion for one another. Michelle, go and teach your people about helping people rather than expecting to be given handouts. Shame! Shame on you!
where did that come from?
ROFLMAO!
The campaigner, the BSer, the divider.
We need a Leader not a PR advertiser, billboard.
So far a bunch of pooh.
Great for photo ops, poor on accomplishments and follow-through.
No Leadership. The great manipulator.
"More bang for the buck". What's with Obama? First, he was seen shooting a shotgun. Now, he is using assault weapon language while children are being suspended from school for drawing pictures of guns.
As the math,science and language skills of American children slide further down the world rankings we don't need more Federal involvement pushing these useless programs onto the states. No Child Left Behind and the Head Start program are two prime examples of failure. Besides who and how will all these new programs Obama touted in the SOTU address be paid for? His Green Energy policy has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars on grandiose schemes of these "Green" companies. Solyndra, Chevy Volt etc. This guy acts like a character in the Dilbert comic strip. NOT A CLUE.
From page 34 of the "Head Start Impact Study" produced from OUR OWN Department of Health and Human Services, January 2010:
"In sum, this report finds that providing access to Head Start has benefits for both 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds in the cognitive, health, and parenting domains, and for 3-year-olds in the social-emotional domain. However, the benefits of access to Head Start at age four are largely absent by 1st grade for the program population as a whole. For 3-year-olds, there are few sustained benefits, although access to the program may lead to improved parent-child relationships through 1st grade…"
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/executive_summary_final.pdf
So, by the Government's own reckoning, we're already wasting our money with the current Head Start program and Mr. Obama just wants to expand it???
All this "feel-good" crap from so-called liberals has to stop.
30 states are rebuking obamacare. In the SOTU "O" said 500,000 new jobs, LOL when we lost 600,000
America heard once again all the things Obama is going to give the country and "it wont cost a thing" in adding to the national debt. Here is the carbon copy of Karl Marx peddeling his socialist snake oil across the country not telling how his socialist entitlements programs will be paid for. Perhaps, its even a more imposing of "shared responsibility" or redistribution of wealth that Obama wants for the future of those who own businesses and who have sacrificed to make their free market beliefs a success. Never in the history of America or of this Republic has success been so villified as during this Bolsheviks 8 years of reign of terror in the White House. Economic accountability is not in his mental ability to conceive. The national debt isn't a spending problem its a revenue problem according to Obama. America tightens its belt with higher costs of electricity; fuels; food products; building materials and Obama continues the free spending typical of a person who feels he is not accountable to the American taxpayer for his actions. The "new order" is well on its way of being established via Executive Order and Congress continues to support steps to destroy this Republic without any guilt.
Not gonna happen when conservatives would rather have lower taxes.