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Most teachers agree a child's education starts much earlier than the standard K-12 of public school. Early childhood education is essential for building a solid foundation from which students can grow and learn.
But a Rutgers University National Institute for Early Education Research report found that in Ohio, fewer than one-third of children living in poverty are being enrolled in Head Start and Early Head Start programs.
Ohio has only 29% enrollment in Head Start for kids in poverty, and only 8% in Early Head Start, according to a report by the Ohio Capital Journal.
And the study showed only 35% of Ohio's white children in poverty are enrolled in Head Start, followed by 24% of Black children and 28% of impoverished children of other races.
"The report finds that federal investment is needed to increase access for families in poverty and address racial and ethnic disparities in enrollment," NIEER reported, according to the Capital Journal.
Ohio is not the only state facing such a problem.
"Despite steady declines in child poverty, Head Start serves the same percentage of children in poverty it did a decade ago, leaving far too many children behind, a problem that the pandemic has now exacerbated greatly," Dr. Steven Barnett, education professor and NIEER co-director, told the Capital Journal.
As always, the suggested solution is throwing more money at the problem. The NIEER report says the program is limited by "insufficient funding."
Perhaps that is part of the problem; and more money where it would do the most good -- say, at the level of teachers in our communities -- might indeed result in some improvement. But tossing a few extra taxpayer dollars at the program will do little good if we aren't asking what exactly is keeping parents from enrolling their kids in these programs.
Is it a matter of transporting their kids to facilities? Do the parents have enough awareness of the program, and a means to register their kids? Do the parents value early childhood education -- or education at all -- enough to want their kids to participate?
For those in survival mode, "what's in it for us?" is a legitimate question.
Are we doing a good enough job answering that for the parents of these children? If the answer is no, throwing all the money in the world at the program will make no difference.