Does the Administration think Early Childhood Doesn’t Matter for Economic Growth?

It’s awfully telling that the administration’s new Education Blueprint: An Economy Built to Last document includes sections on Higher Education and K-12 reform but not early childhood. To be sure, the document gives some lip service to the Early Learning Challenge Fund, but it doesn’t list administration initiatives and proposals for early childhood the same way it does for higher ed and K-12, nor does it document state spending cuts for early childhood like it does higher ed and K-12 state funding cuts---even though we know that childcare funding and access have taken a big hit in many states, and that childcare is a jobs issue. Just another reminder that, despite rhetoric about the importance of early childhood education, the administration still doesn’t really see early childhood as a core part of its education reform agenda on par with K-12 and higher ed, and that early childhood education advocates really shouldn’t get their hopes up for a second Obama term or the 113th Congress.