http://www.theage.com.au/comment/sussan-leys-early-learnings-unlikely-to-save-preschool-funding-2014...
...evidence has also shown the benefits of early education for children’s later academic success. University of Melbourne research proved children who participated in early education, led by early childhood teachers, scored 20 to 30 points higher on their first NAPLAN tests in primary school.
In 2012, Program for International Student Assessment tests showed students who had an early childhood education were ahead by as much as 12 months academically over their peers at the age of 15.
Early education may be a magic bullet, but the knowledge of this was unlikely to sway a government looking for budget savings in every nook and cranny.
The state and territory governments were understandably concerned when Sussan Ley, the Commonwealth Assistant Minister for Education, said she didn't believe funding preschool to be a Commonwealth responsibility.
Will early childhood education become another victim of Commonwealth budget cuts?
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We know conclusively that although all children benefit from early education, disadvantaged children benefit the most.
In 2011 57.1 per cent of children under two years old were read to at home from a book or told a story each day; 19.8 per cent had no activities like this at home. Preschool education helps close that literacy gap.
Will Ley and her cabinet colleagues continue funding early childhood education? If early education activists had the foresight to take a young Ley to a disadvantaged community so she could have been moved by how much early learning can shape the life of a child whose destiny is otherwise limited, she may well have decided to make access to early childhood education her political legacy. If they had, the funding would possibly not be in doubt now.
