Expanding High Quality Early Childhood Education Options for Low-Income Families: A Community Hub Approach

High quality early childhood education can have long-term positive effects on young children's development. Children who participate in early childhood programs are less likely to need to special education or remediation in elementary school, are more likely to be reading at grade level in third grade, they more likely to graduate from high school and go on to college and become successful members of their communities. This is especially true for children who are growing up in poverty. However, quality is key. To achieve these outcomes children must have access to the high quality programs. Unfortunately, low-income children are also the least likely to have access to high quality early childhood. At the heart of the issue is the lack of resources in Missouri to actually fund the necessary components of quality. The time is now to look outside of our state for innovative ideas and systems to solve this problem-an early childhood community hub is one such idea.