Agenda - 06-07-1993 - II-B - Laserfiche WebLink

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Smart Start North Carolina Early Childhood Initiative Governor Jim Hunt has proposed a comprehensive initiative designed to provide every child in North Carolina access to affordable, quality early childhood education and other crucial services. Called Smart Start, the initiative targets children from birth to five years old to ensure they come to school healthy and ready to learn. The Challenge North Carolina is failing its children. Our state ranks 39th in the nation—among the 12 worst states—on the health and well-being of children, according to the national Kids Count Data Book. Every day in North Carolina three babies die, 67 children are abused or neglected, 45 families are started by teens and 38 teenagers drop out of high school, according to the N.C. Child Advocacy Institute's 1993 Children's Index. Juvenile crime is on the rise, with North Carolina's 6.9 percent increase being more than twice the national increase of 3.4 percent. Nearly 20 percent of North Carolina children under age five live in poverty, the highest rate of poverty for any segment of our population. Eighty percent of the inmates in our prisons today grew up in poverty. More than 65 percent of North Carolina mothers with children under the age of six work outside the home. That's one of the highest percentages of working mothers in the United States. The number-one concern of young families today is quality child care. Current services for children and families are fragmented and often fail to help families take control of their lives. What Works The most important thing we can do for North Carolina's long-term economic development is to help children get the best start in life. A world-class work force requires world-class skills which, in turn, require children to come to school ready to learn. Extensive studies, including a 15-year study by the nationally acclaimed Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center, have proven that early childhood education works. The Frank Porter Graham study found that even at age 15, you still can see substantial, meaningful differences in achievement resulting from quality day care at an early age. High-quality early childhood education is the single-most cost-effective way to ensure our future economic development and prosperity. Every dollar spent now on early childhood education will save more than $7 down the road in remedial education, welfare, prisons and crime.