Take Action! US House to Vote on Early Learning this Week!

What’s Happening

This week, Congress is going to vote on the most major piece of federal early care and education legislation in almost a decade. The Early Learning Challenge Fund, included in H.R. 3221, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009, would support critical quality improvements for young children.

The legislation would provide $1 billion a year for eight years to states to develop and enhance high-quality early learning opportunities for all young children, especially those at-risk of not coming to school ready to learn.

This bill, paired with existing supports for current providers, sends a strong signal about the need to invest in comprehensive initiatives at the state level to increase the quality of early learning programs to ensure that children succeed. The bill will also create federal partnerships to help improve the quality of early care and education programs for children from birth to five in all educational settings.

What you can do

Please e-mail and call your US Representative today and urge them to:

Support the Early Learning Challenge Fund included in H.R. 3221, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009. This bill supports critical quality improvements so that young children are prepared for school. It will give states like Minnesota the support we need to deliver high quality early learning programming for young children. Please support the Early Learning Challenge fund in H.R. 3221.

See Ready 4 K's Action Page for more information.

Deadline: End of the day, Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Find your US Representative here (enter zip in upper left corner). If you know your US Representative, you can reach the main Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to them.

photo by kimberyfaye