As I continue to explore this website, I find more and more information that could actually help my current employer to enroll more children. There is an initiative that this site as funded allowing either current teachers or those wishing to get involved in the program to get help financially in doing so. It is called T.E.A.C.H. Teacher education and compensation helps. This program has scholarships that could provide people with a chance to get a true education in early childhood. This would allow the system to have more qualified teachers and possibly start a phase where we are better prepared to teach our young children. I know that my current employer also has scholarships to offer to employees, but it just dawned on me that we could offer scholarships to parents who want to bring their children to our center but cannot afford it. This would make us a place that could promote education no matter the status of the family. It would allow every child to have an equal shot at an education and a high quality one at that.
Entering the college zone is an initiative that allows parents of under-privileged middle school students to start preparing for college. This post made me stop and think that while this a great program and is much needed for those who may never have a chance to go to college, why not help everyone who wants to go to college? I heard on the news that in CO there was a law passed allowing illegal residence to go to a higher education institution for free. The reasoning behind this was to promote these people to become citizens and have a degree that would in turn promote our own economy. The theory is there but what about the rest of us who are legal residence and are struggling to go to school and further this country? it seems to me that the help for children who are underprivileged is needed but why not offer the help to everyone?
There are 27 communities that are involved in the NBCDI, and their funding comes from many places. The government, donations, as well as private parties. To me this says that we want our children to succeed and in order for this to happen we need to support our early childhood education system. So many readings, journals, advertisements have shown that a child who starts their education in early childhood centers tend to do more in their lives and move on to become better things in life. If this were not true then why would companies like the Goddard schools be able to advertise and have so much promotion? For those 27 communities that are affiliated with this program, they are sending a message that we need our children to learn and the sooner they start the sooner they will be able to grasp what is important once they reach the age of public schools.
Tiffany,
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice if all places could offer scholarships for those that need it in order to get a better start. It's funny you mentioned that there is a place were illegals are being allowed to attend school for free in hopes they will become citizens. We were eating at one of our favorite Japanese restaurants the other night and in speaking with the owner who is a legal resident but is not originally from the U.S. He said why can't we help our own children before we help everyone else he's trying hard to help his daughter get through school who is a legal citizen and a minority to a degree but still did not qualify for a minority scholarship. I found this very interesting and I agreed with him. Also, an early start is the first step. I think when working with people from other cultures and countries we need to find ways to express this for those are not aware.
Thanks for sharing.
Ginny
Tiffany, great post. I agree that scholarships can offer people opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach. With the costs of educations becoming unmanagable for most students, more and more people will forgo a college education and those that do go will have a mountain of student loan debt, which will force them to work for companies that offer high compensation, which typically are not the ones serving low income children( The highest risk group). There are currently student loan debt forgivness programs that buyback teacher's student loans on a prorated basis for years worked with low income schools. We need to find a way to make quality education afforable to everyone.
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