Persistent gaps in test scores and college enrollment between students from low income families and other more financially secure students are well documented, as are the challenges schools face in trying to improve student outcomes. Too often, these disparities are seen as inevitable and the challenges insurmountable. Increased investments are characterized as wasteful, rather than necessary. Yet, there are concrete and measurable deficiencies in the educational opportunities available to students in high poverty schools.
All children should have the opportunity to reach their full potential. At the same time, parents should be able to go to work with the comfort that their children are safe, nurtured, and learning. For many families, child care is a crucial component of this vision.
Early care and education programs have proven to be the most effective policies for improving the lifelong outcomes for children. Attending high-quality early care programs leads to higher educational achievement in later years while reducing expensive social ills, like chronic health problems or crime. These improved outcomes translate to a direct positive impact on the economy as a whole in the form of increased wages and productivity, and lower spending on social services.
In order to reach the state’s workforce and economic goals, Indiana needs leadership to better align resources for adult students and to remove barriers that stand between them and post-secondary education and training programs. The state has made progress in tailoring academic and training programs to workforce demands and made steps toward incentivizing those programs with financial aid. And yet, too many of the would-be students who need these programs most never take the first step because their path is blocked by non-academic barriers. Many more start but stop or drop out permanently before completing degrees and credentials that would benefit their families and Indiana’s economy.
One in five Georgia children lives with at least one immigrant parent and nearly half of immigrants in Georgia struggle to speak English. When parents struggle to speak English, it not only hurts their ability to bring home higher pay to support their families, it also limits their involvement in their children’s education. This reduces the likelihood their children will succeed in school and one day reach their potential in the workforce.
More than 509,000 Georgia children have immigrant parents and 45 percent of immigrants in Georgia don’t speak English well. Yet Georgia’s English language programs enrolled only about 12,000 adults in 2016. Georgia is also one of just two states that ban undocumented immigrants from basic literacy and other adult education programs. This ban hurts children, including U.S. citizens, by making English language education inaccessible for their parents.
It is in the best interest of the state for lawmakers to improve the educational opportunities for immigrants because Georgia is likely to continue to diversify and attract newcomers from many different countries. The country’s immigrant population is projected to increase at double the rate of the U.S.-born population over the next five years. Georgia’s workforce will likely add more immigrants as the state continues to capture a large share of the nation’s population growth. Putting up unusual roadblocks to literacy and training programs and underfunding English language education undermines Georgia’s future workforce and its ability to compete.