Early Childhood Subsidies

689 Words2 Pages

The demand of high quality early childhood education is an important level in the development of a child’s early years to enhance and to expect academic success. According to the research it was demonstrated that high-quality, developmentally appropriate early childhood programs produce short-and long-term positive effects on children’s cognitive and social development (NAEYC). However, this depends on the access, availability and affordability as well as the equity issues related to early care and education. Another way to determine a high quality childhood education is to ensure the well-being of children and families through investment. Nonetheless, this responsibility should be shared by stakeholders such as federal, state, local government, …show more content…

The difference in these two groups of people may be hard to note if necessary policies are put in place to control the widening of the gap in the social classes. One of the measures that can be applied to lessen this gap is the provision of subsidies. Subsidies affect two factors which consequently affect the development of the child’s initial education. These factors are the stability of care and quality of care. Krafft Caroline et al. (2017) have established that provision of subsidies to the child positively influences the quality of care given to the child. This, in turn, led to positive outcomes in the child’s education. It is also important to note that provision of subsidies to any given child has a negligible effect on the stability of the care given (Krafft, C. …show more content…

Other than looking at how equality has been effected in the education of every individual child, it is also relevant to look at how equality has been ensured in different schools across the nation. The government of the United States of America through the accountability office of the government (GAO) has ensured that it grants about one billion US dollars towards the development education in the twenty-first-century program since 2002. However, this has been achieved through supporting a vast array of events other than the normal school activities. A better balance with regards to equity has been achieved by supporting the K-12 schools that perform poorly or that are adversely affected by poverty. The GAO has also gone an extra mile by examining how the K-12 schools are awarded the funds, as well as, how the schools use the awarded funds. The GAO has also gone ahead to check on how education affects the effectiveness and sustainability of the program (United States, GAO. 2017).
Another important issue that concerns equity in early childhood education programs is that of race and ethnicity. Christina, W. and Stephanie, S. (2016) propose that access to subsidies that promote the care of children in their initial education stages is in a way limited to for the children who are eligible. To make the situation worse, they also established that the provision of the subsidies is limited by race. For instance, the Latino children who are eligible to receive

Open Document