Fred Chaffee, AZCA President and CEO, recently sent this letter to the editor in response to a column about state budget cuts.

January 2010

Dear Editor:

I read Robert Robb's column, "voters turned off by government spending spree,"  specifically, "I think (Governor Brewer in her proposed budget) is going too soft on the First Things First program," with alarm.

We human service providers understand that some valuable programs that serve vulnerable children and families may not be there when budget dust settles.  But it is very unnerving to hear a call for First Things First funding to be re-directed to all day kindergarten.  What happens to children in the first five years of their lives will determine their ability to learn and be ready to start school.

Kindergarten is too late.

The human capacity to develop and change is greatest from birth to five years old when the brain is most malleable and able to change in response to education and stimulation.  Investing in all day kindergarten at the expense of early childhood education creates a mismatch between the investments made and the opportunity for improvement.  As a result, there is a great demand for expensive remedial programs to address learning and behavior problems in later years when change is far more difficult to achieve.

In the words of James Heckman, Nobel laureate for Economics, who has studied decades worth of data from early childhood development programs, "learning experiences and physical health from birth to age five greatly impact success or failure in society. The most economically efficient time to develop these skills and abilities is in the very early years when developmental education is most  effective."

I agree with Mr. Robb that having health insurance and better start to school would do a lot for low income children.  What the research shows is that having a better start to school starts long before kindergarten.

Sincerely,

Fred Chaffee
President and CEO
Arizona’s Children Association