Giving Compass' Take:

• California officials are trying to decide if they should have state-level governing of early education programs in order to prepare their youngest children better for kindergarten. 

• What are the challenges for the state of California to have control over early education programs? What are the benefits? 

• Read more on why access to high quality pre-school is necessary for kids before they enter kindergarten. 

There is growing recognition that California in effect has three systems of education — one for children before they enter kindergarten, another serving children in the K-12 grades and one for higher education.

But in the eyes of many experts, policymakers and elected officials, the system serving the state’s youngest children is the most important in building a foundation for a student’s future success. It is also the most fragmented and least coordinated one.

Along the lines of what many other states have done, the report recommended that California establish a “state-level governing body with the authority and expertise to coordinate all early childhood education programs.”

Along the lines of what many other states have done, the report recommended that California establish a “state-level governing body with the authority and expertise to coordinate all early childhood education programs.”Those programs are intended to serve the state’s 2.5 million children between the ages of 0 and 5, but the challenge of coordinating them are enormous. They range from licensed family day care homes with small numbers of children to centers serving infants and toddlers to preschool programs run by private operators and school districts. In many cases, children are cared for informally by relatives or friends.

The challenge of coordinating the early education system could well become even more of an issue if California moves to expand early childhood programs. Establishing state-level early childhood education departments or divisions “elevates the importance of child care, contributes to streamlining of funding and programs, avoids duplication of services and having programs work at cross purposes to each other,” said Grafwallner, who formerly ran Maryland’s Division of Early Childhood Development.

Read the full article about early childhood programs by Louis Freedberg at EdSurge.