Early Childhood Development
The Board of Directors of the Business Council of Alabama recently hosted David Lawrence, a dynamic speaker and education proponent who left his long-time position as publisher of The Miami Herald in 1999 to pursue his passion for early childhood intervention and preparation. He is president of the Early Childhood Initiative Foundation. In remarks to the board, Lawrence outlines why pre-K education is the starting point for the workforce of the future, and challenges business leaders to support a fully funded, voluntary statewide pre-K program. BCA is grateful to the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham for generously sponsoring Mr. Lawrence's visit to Alabama and to the Alabama School Readiness Alliance for its work in sharing this important message with the people of Alabama.
|
|
|
|
Alabama's past is full of interesting people and history-making events, but its future depends on an educated, highly skilled workforce. |
|
|
|
|
Early childhood development is critical to developing our workforce of the future. Alabama has made strides, but still has a long way to go. |
|
|
|
|
The greatest contribution to genuine public education reform in the country is not fixing the 4th grade, or the 7th grade or any other grade, but delivering the child in significantly better shape than an enormous number of them are being delivered to kindergarten now. |
|
|
|
|
Building an early childhood movement requires involving <i>everyone's</i> children. It's about working <i>together</i> with children as the focus. |
|
|
|
|
No single group can do it alone. Partnership is the power in a community. A partnership between business, schools, parents, the faith community and more. And the business community should drive the partnership. |
|
|
|
|
What can we do to improve the quality of college graduates? It starts in a child's earliest years. Business knows better than anyone the power of investment. |
|
|
|
|
We can begin now to build the momentum and develop a vision for all Alabama's children. |
Business Council of Alabama