Governor's move means great things

Tulsa World | August 7, 2009

By World's Editorial Writers

Thank you, Brad Henry.

Gov. Henry did the right thing Wednesday when he directed $15 million to Tulsa's schools for three new early childhood education centers for 3-year-olds in high poverty areas.

The money comes from some $100 million in discretionary federal stimulus money that Henry controls and will be matched with funding from the George Kaiser Family Foundation and, hopefully, more money from a Tulsa Public Schools bond issue next year.

The $15 million will have an obvious and quick stimulative effect on the local economy: It will result in new jobs in preparing the physical space for the program and for the faculty at the new centers.

For the working-class parents who voluntarily bring their children to the program it will be as good as a pay raise because it will relieve them of one of the biggest expenses of working parents, child care.

More important though, the money is an investment in the community's economic future. Early childhood education is the most effective means of preventing an at-risk child from becoming a risky adult.

Children who take part in high-quality early childhood programs have a giant head start toward future academic success.

Thanks largely to the encouragement and funding of the Kaiser foundation, Tulsa has become a national leader in early childhood education in recent years. The stimulus funding for programs for 3-year-olds will continue that leadership position and help Tulsa build toward a brighter future.

Someday perhaps a child who got his start in the new Tulsa program will accomplish something great. He will build a better widget or perhaps she will lead our exploration of Mars. Certainly, many, many of the children who come through the program will accomplish a long succession of less astounding, but nonetheless important things. They will go to college and build stable families and take good jobs. They'll vote and pay taxes and become productive members of the community.

They will break the generational cycle of poverty.

That will be the legacy of this announcement, and it will be an accomplishment in which Brad Henry can take personal pride.