Several weeks ago Democrat Bill de Blasio won the Democratic nomination for Mayor of New York City while running a progressive campaign based on ending the city’s growing inequality. The Center for Economic Opportunity report
Go anywhere downtown, and you see inequality among and all around us; sometimes it’s huddled in tired, soggy masses, sometimes it has a sign asking for spare change, or sometimes its sprawled out under a business’s awning trying to stay dry. In Portland, there is no greater example of inequality than that of those experiencing homelessness. Perhaps it’s for us here in Portland to take a page out of de Blasio’s playbook and try to address one of the long-term causes of inequality.
As de Blasio argues, public education is the great equalizer in our society. A free, quality and universal education system is the best way to ensure students are fully equipped to go and get jobs and live a stable life. A top-notch public education is also the best way to help children already experiencing poverty to escape its cyclical clutches. One of the main factors in determining whether a student received a quality education or not is whether the student received early, pre-kindergarten education or not. Research shows that 90 percent of brain growth occurs by age six. In Portland, one in five Portland kindergartners aren’t ready when they reach kindergarten, largely because they don’t have access to early childhood education. Children who fall behind in the first grade have only a 13 percent chance of ever catching up to their current grade level. According to a report put out by the Children’s Institute, children who start school behind all too often stay behind.
Success or failure in a child’s early years largely determines the achievement later in K-12 school, and consequently, throughout life. As a city, we cannot afford to postpone making a proper investment in our children’s future any longer. If we fail, the results will be dramatic, and the statistics bear this out. Seventy-seven percent of students living below the poverty line receiving childhood education graduate on time versus approximately 50 percent of their peers, who did not receive early childhood education. The rate of success is even more pronounced among girls (84 percent versus 35 percent). Universal early childhood education significantly influences higher graduation rates and successful general learning. There is no other single investment in education that yields these results.
As voters in New York City recently acknowledged by voting for de Blasio as Mayor, if we’re serious about eliminating the long-term problems of inequality in our city, then we must start by investing in universal early childhood education.
Nels Johnson is an elected Director serving on the board of the Multnomah Education Service District, adjunct professor at Warner Pacific College and is an attorney in private practice. He and his wife live in Northeast Portland.
