Hillary Clinton's Statement on the State of Preschool in America

Today, the National Institute for Early Education Research released its 2006-2007 "State of Preschool Yearbook," the most comprehensive source of information about the state of early childhood education in the U.S. This year's yearbook reveals that state Pre-K programs have grown to the point where they are now serving more than one million students. About 22% of 4-year-olds are being served by state preschool programs, and 15% of three year-olds have access to either state or federal programs, such as Head Start. In addition, the per-pupil funding level for early childhood education has grown for the first time since 2002-2003.

Unfortunately, despite the incredible body of research illustrating the profound impact of early childhood investments, 12 states still offer no state-funded preschool education; half of all three-year-olds do not have access to preschool; and only two states met all of NIEER's quality benchmarks. According to NIEER, more than a quarter of American four-year-olds live in states with low pre-K quality standards. The bottom line is of this report is that while we have made a lot of progress in expanding access to early childhood education, we still have tremendous gaps in access and quality, and a great deal of work to do to ensure that every child starts school ready to learn.

As President, Hillary will make early childhood education a top priority, as she has throughout her life. During her campaign, she has laid out a bold plan to provide $10 billion to states to enable them to provide quality pre-K for all four year olds and to strengthen state's programs serving children aged zero to five. Hillary has also committed to growing the budget of Head Start to $8 billion by 2010, increasing the number of children served by 200,000, and increasing the quality of and access to child care, through the Child Care Development Block Grant. Hillary began her career at the Children's Defense Fund and served on its board for 16 years. As First Lady, she spearheaded the Administration's efforts to double funding for child care, and grow the budget of Head Start by 90%.