For many years, my focus has been on creating trusting relationships and building the teamwork necessary to tackle complicated, interconnected challenges involving child care, early education, meaningful teaching and learning, health services, and the causes and effects of poverty.Years ago, Pat Potts, and her husband, the late Ray Potts, founded the Potts Family Foundation and taught me that the best investments we can make are in early childhood development.That remains especially true in Oklahoma where we always are fifth or sixth from the bottom in things like food insecurity and maternal health, and where 55% of the state is classified as “child care deserts.”Ray Potts wrote in a 2015 editorial that a study of prekindergarten programs in Oklahoma showed that students later “demonstrated persistent education gains, better retention rates, better attitudes about school and less absenteeism into eighth grade.”And, other studies across the nation have confirmed similar long-term benefits for children — especially at-risk youth. Research also tells us the negative impact of child care problems cost the American economy about $122 billion annually.The Potts Foundation has long promoted Head Start, and other high-quality afterschool programs like those supported by federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLCs) that “provide kids with safe learning environments that reinforce the skills they’re learning in school.”However, Potts wrote in 2018 that 1 in 6 4-year-olds wasn’t enrolled in either Pre-K or Head Start. Over 8 in 10 of 3-yearolds weren’t enrolled.According to the National Institute for Early Education Research, Oklahoma’s state funding of preschool education declined during the 2022-23 school year, when inflation is taken into account. The state’s overall enrollment in those programs also dropped.In 2023, state funding per child had dropped by $226 from the previous year, and by $735 since 2007. The same report found that 24% of 4-year-olds and 81% of 3-year-olds were not enrolled in preschool or Head Start.It is a tribute to nonprofits, like the Potts Family Foundation, that even though Oklahoma ranked 31st nationally in state funding of Pre-K programming, the state ranked 3rd in terms of access by 4-year-olds. Moreover, the state met 9 of the 10 benchmarks in terms of quality standards.Although Oklahoma nonprofits have a great record in advancing early education, Oklahomans are facing pushback, such as the governor’s refusal to participate in children’s summer lunch programs.Our political challenges are bound to get worse.So, as the child advocates work for systemic changes, they are ...
