Explanation
Background:
Mayor Ginther’s vision for Columbus, America’s Opportunity City, is to create access to a high-quality early childhood education for every 4-year-old. Addressing early childhood learning means bringing awareness and resources to a critical learning stage in childhood development. Children who come to school ready to learn are more likely to succeed academically and in life.
Children who participate in high-quality early childhood education experiences significantly improve their early literacy, language, and math skills. Ample evidence shows that children who enter school unprepared fall farther and farther behind. Students who get a poor start in their earliest years are likely to struggle in high school and, subsequently, fail to graduate.
Unfortunately, there are too few high-quality preschool providers in Columbus. Fewer than 20 percent of providers in the City are rated 3-5 stars in the Ohio quality rating system (1-5 stars) Step Up To Quality (SUTQ). About seventy-five percent of providers have no rating at all. This deficit is especially alarming as Ohio has a deadline that requires all providers be SUTQ rated by 2020 to be eligible to accept children funded by Publicly Funded Child Care (PFCC). The community’s failure to adequately meet this deadline would displace thousands of our poorest children, put providers out of business, and cause a layoff of childcare workers.
The greatest determinant of the quality of a child’s education is the quality of that child’s classroom teacher. Increasing the quality of preschool teachers will not only better prepare our children for kindergarten but will greatly assist our community by meeting the State’s 2020 goal. The Department of Education has determined that helping existing preschool teachers receive their Child Development Associate (CDA) certification will help to close both of these gaps.
Therefore, the Department of Education requests permission to contract with Action F...
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