President Obama, following his call for preschool for “every child in America,” will visit a pre-kindergarten class at College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center in Decatur, Georgia, this afternoon.
Ironically, the students are on spring break this week, according to the school’s website. But parents have been invited to bring their kids to school today for the president’s visit, according to a letter to parents obtained by CNN.
After the classroom visit, Obama will speak at the Decatur Community Recreation Center to plug his plan for “high-quality preschool for every child.”
The White House plan includes “continuum of high-quality early learning for a child, beginning at birth and continuing to age 5,” the Associated Press reports. Families with an income 200 percent or less of the federal poverty level would get government-funded preschool, and all 50 states and the federal government would pay, AP says.
Obama first outlined that goal in his State of the Union speech:
Tonight, I propose working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every child in America. Every dollar we invest in high-quality early education can save more than $7 later on – by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime. In states that make it a priority to educate our youngest children, like Georgia or Oklahoma, studies show students grow up more likely to read and do math at grade level, graduate high school, hold a job, and form more stable families of their own. So let’s do what works, and make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind. Let’s give our kids that chance.
