Head Start success story shows why Idaho needs to accept federal early learning grant
In voting down House Bill 226, the Idaho legislature turned away $6 million in federal grants meant to provide Idaho children from ages 0 to 5 with early learning opportunities. I want to tell you why this matters to me.
I am a Head Start kid. I attended pre-K for two years at ages 3 and 4 before I went on to kindergarten. Studies show that access to pre-K education improves outcomes all around for kids, and I’m living proof.
I was born to a single, 17-year-old mother. I am the first person in my family to graduate from high school (neither of my parents has their GED, even now). I am the first person in my family to graduate from college, and I’m a year away from a master’s degree. While my family needed to use public assistance for my entire childhood, I have been fortunate to never have had to do so.
I am employed, contribute meaningfully to my community, make more than twice the average per capita income for Idaho, and pay more in taxes than this state’s top earners.
A lot of this is privilege, and a lot of this is luck, but I know that access to pre-K education had a lasting impact on my trajectory and influenced what I knew to be possible for a kid like me.
Pre-K allowed my mother to work to provide for our family. Pre-K gave me the social and educational skills to thrive in a school setting. Pre-K provided structure and routine in an otherwise unpredictable childhood. Pre-K surrounded me with caring adults who exemplified the village that it takes to raise a child.
Idaho families need access to all of the things that this $6 million grant is intended to provide. Idaho is one of only four states that doesn’t fund pre-K. We can do better for Idaho working families. Idaho children deserve the opportunity to imagine possibilities beyond their family circumstances.
I urge the Idaho Legislature to reconsider House Bill 226 and focus on families and children rather than out-of-state interests and conspiracy theories. We must do better.