“It’s no wonder that every school district in the nation isn’t rushing to invest in early literacy. Because of constrained budgets, emphasis is placed on the more immediate needs…” starts Jean Franco’s recent op/ed in the February 2013 issue of The School Administrator, the professional magazine of the American Association of School Administrators. Jean Franco is the Superintendent of the Lowell Public Schools and a staunch supporter of early education as a strategy for closing the academic achievement gap.

We are reflecting on Superintendent Franco’s remarks on the heels of a morning news report in today’s Boston Globe that funding for public preschool is at an all-time low.

Superintendent Franco cites the Perry Preschool Study in making her case for increasing investment in early education as a strategy for achieving state and national goals for economic and technological advancement. “…$1 invested in high-quality early childhood education programs result(s) in a return of $7 (because of) savings in truancy and drop-out prevention, incarceration, and teen pregnancy.  This study clearly links the early intervention of education with the success of young people and the nation’s economic health.”

But what about the ever present short term priorities faced by Superintendent and her colleagues, the same short term priorities that seem to squeeze the available time and financial resources school districts can give to early literacy? Superintendent Franco addresses these too, citing the impact of early education programs – including Raising A Reader MA – on family engagement in their children’s academic lives, and essential kindergarten readiness skills including oral language abilities and pre-reading skills such as vocabulary and letter sound and recognition.

Learn more about why early education is a priority in Lowell by reading Superintendent Jean Franco’s complete op/ed in the February 2013 issue of The School Administrator.