Several members of Congress joined 80 pre-school students from the Sunshine Early Learning Center on Thursday to help as they read the book “Llama Llama Red Pajama.”
But little did the pajama-clad llama know it would be involved in the ongoing fight for early childhood education funding. Behind the mirage of the national reading effort was an effort to bring pre-K advocacy to the forefront.
Jumpstart, which advocates for learning and literacy among low-income children, said it had enlisted 2.1 million children nationwide to read the book today. That would set a record for largest number of people reading the same book on the same day.
“They are raising their voices for high-quality education and services,” said Katey Comerford, executive director of Jumpstart’s Washington chapter. Her organization also manages a volunteer network to help schools with reading programs.
“Right now it’s really just getting people on the same sheet of music and bringing the awareness,” said Massachusetts Republican Sen. Scott Brown. “Certainly programs like this help a lot.”
On Tuesday, the Pre-K Coalition held a panel discussion to argue that Congress should amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to include pre-K education.
While Thursday’s reading event wasn’t as direct, the members of Congress got the same funding message.
“Right now it comes down to the resources,” Brown said. “That’s why I’m challenging the select committee of 12 [the so-called “super committee” charged with cutting the federal deficit] to do their jobs and make sure we cannot devastate programs like this and others.”
“There’s some positive signals coming out of the Senate,” offered Connecticut Democratic Rep. Joe Courtney. “Particularly, the … reform may move forward and hopefully early childhood education is going to be one of the changes.”
Courtney added that the government’s failure to include pre-K education in the No Child Left Behind law left “a huge hole in the program.”
And that hole, like most in government budgets, is on that can only be filled by taxpayer dollars.
“It’s about priorities … deciding what is a priority,” said Missouri Democratic Rep. William Lacy Clay. “If some feel funding our military is more of a priority than educating our young people, then we will not get the necessary funding.”
Dr. Jacqueline Jones, a senior adviser in the Department of Education, had the most creative reason for legislators to put more funding behind pre-K programs.
“In this morning when we are paying tribute and remembering the creative genius of Steve Jobs,” she said, “I think it is time for us to recommit ourselves to fostering and bringing out the genius of every child.”