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- Every year between 30 and 40 percent of child care workers leave their jobs. This turnover has an incredibly detrimental effect on children during the critical, formative years of birth to three. (National Center for the Early Childhood Work Force)
- Inadequacy of pay for early childhood educators is a reality. The average annual salary in 1999 was $15,430. As Education Week notes, that is "about as much as parking-lot attendants and dry-cleaning workers make." (Broder, David S. ?Facing the Reality on Early Education.? The Washington Post January 9, 2002 A19.)
- Employees with inadequate child care are more likely to be late for work, absent or distracted on the job than parents who are confident about their children?s child care arrangements. High rates of turnover, absenteeism and low productivity cost employers money. The Child Care Action Campaign (CCAC) estimates absenteeism caused by poor quality child care costs American businesses more than $3 billion a year. (Child Care Action Campaign Web site)
- A landmark, long-term study of the effects of high-quality early care and education on low-income three- and four-year-olds shows that adults at age 40 who participated in a preschool program in their early years have higher earnings, are more likely to hold a job, have committed fewer crimes, and are more likely to have graduated from high school. Overall, the study documented a return to society of more than a $17 for every tax dollar invested in the early care and education program. (The High/Scope Perry Preschool Study Through Age 40)
- At-risk children, without quality pre-kindergarten were 70% more likely to commit violent crimes. (Fight Crime: Invest in Kids-Reports "America's Child Care Crisis: A Crime Prevention Tragedy")
- Children who experience high-quality, stable child care engage in more complex play, demonstrate more secure attachments to adults and other children, and score higher on measures of thinking ability and language development. (National Association for the Education of Young Children Web site)
- Every dollar invested in early learning saves $17.00 in remedial education, welfare and prison costs in the future. (High/Scope Perry Preschool Study)
- Evidence strongly suggests that students who fail to read on grade level by the fourth grade have a greater likelihood of dropping out of school and a lifetime of diminished success. (No Child Left Behind Web site)
- For preschoolers, every hour of daily television viewing increases their chances by about 10 percent of developing attention problems later. (American Academy of Pediatrics)
- Low-income children who attend high-quality preschool are more likely than their peers to be high school graduates, have higher incomes as adults and engage in less criminal activity.
- Nationally, the proportion of children ages 3 to 5 enrolled in preprimary education rose from 42 percent in 1990 to 61 percent in 2000, an increase of 19 percentage points. Georgia had the largest increase--from 41 percent in 1990 to 67 percent in 2000. (America?s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2003)
- Quality early care and education has a long-lasting impact on children, their well-being and their ability to learn. (Carnegie Corporation Years of Promise report)
- While 85% of a child's core brain structure is formed by age three, less than 4% of public investments on education and development have occurred by that time. (Early Learning Left Out: Executive Summary)
- Georgia?s ratio of adults to infants is one adult to every six infants. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) recommends a ratio of one adult to every four children. (National Association for the Education of Young Children)
- In Georgia, approximately 60 percent of children are cared for in a setting other than parental care, for example formal child care, group home or family care provider. (The Georgia Childhood Care and Education Databook)
- In the year 2002, 59.2 percent of Georgia's preschoolers came either from two-parent homes where both parents worked or from single-parent homes where the parent worked. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
- More than 70 percent of Georgia's fourth graders read below the proficient level. (Children's Defense Fund)
- Nationally, the turnover rate for child care workers is higher than 30 percent. The turnover rate among participants in Smart Start Georgia's INCENTIVE$ program is less than 10 percent.
- A child?s knowledge of the alphabet in kindergarten is one of the most significant predictors of what that child?s tenth grade reading ability will be. (No Child Left Behind Web site)
- Evaluations of well-run early-learning programs also have found that children in those environments were less likely to drop out of school, repeat grades, need special education, or get into future trouble with the law than similar children who did not have such exposure. (Education Week ?In Early Childhood Education and Care: Quality Counts.? 1/10/02)
- Studies conclude that early-childhood education makes a difference. Young children exposed to high-quality settings exhibit better language and mathematics skills, better cognitive and social skills, and better relationships with classmates than do children in lower-quality care. (Education Week ?In Early Childhood Education and Care: Quality Counts.? 1/10/02)
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