A new poll shows widespread support for lawmakers to increase spending in early childhood education, with 65% of respondents saying they favor it. Libbie Sonnier, the CEO of the Louisiana Policy Institute for Children, says early childhood education is becoming out of reach for many families in Louisiana.
“Early childhood education really is one of the single-highest expenses families have, even above keeping a roof over their head,” Sonnier noted.
Sonnier says with the cost of early childhood education taking a huge chunk out of family finances, that puts greater importance on programs like federally supported programs like Head Start. Sonnier says there are two programs in the state which are funded by Head Start – Clover and Primetime – and they have enough money to operate this month.
“If the shutdown goes on any much longer, we’ll see that programs are going to have to shut down that are Head Start affiliated,” Sonnier said.
Sonnier says federal support alone is not enough to make early childhood education affordable for many Louisiana families.
“Our Louisiana families are saying they need more state investment, because the cost of child care is so high, and they want to be able to go to school and go to work, but they need support in doing so,” Sonnier explained.
Sonnier points out that responses were fairly consistent across political lines, with nearly half of Republicans and almost 85% of Democrats saying the state needs to do more to support early childhood education. UpONE Insights surveyed 500 Louisiana voters between September 8th through the 13th, and it has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4-percent.
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