Advocates Urge More Federal Spending For Early-Childhood Programs

Washington

If Washington lawmakers understood new findings in brain research, they would completely change their policies and funding for early-childhood programs, a panel of children's advocates told a Senate appropriations subcommittee last week.

Brain development in the first three years of life is absolutely critical, and it's costly for educators to make up anything missed during that period, the panelists said. About 85 percent of development occurs in those first three years, said Dr. Bruce Perry, a professor of child psychology at Baylor College...