The million dollar question for any early education advocate. Last week Seattle CityClub held a panel discussion with Rep. Skip Priest and Valisa Smith of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to better understand how the state has financed early education. If you missed it, luck you, you can watch it on tvw.org right now (it will also run tonight on the station at 10 p.m.).
“Resources are a tough issue. I think one thing we have to do is do a better job of articulating the net cost (of early learning programs)… I would argue that if we did an effective job of the early learning, then in fact the net cost would be significantly less,” Priest said — referring to English Language Learner programs, remediation, dropout prevention and other costly programs that he thinks the state would rely on less if more money was directed to early learning.
