Scholarships, financial aid, and loan forgiveness are insufficient to help many early childhood educators obtain excellent preparation and ongoing professional development. That effective early education must be both challenging and appropriate to young children s ages, individual needs, and culture To guide their decisions about practice, all early childhood teachers need to understand the developmental changes that typically occur in the years from birth through age 8 and beyond, variations in development that may occur, and how best to support children's learning and development during these years. Children's development is best understood within the sociocultural context of the family, educational setting, community, and broader society. These various contexts are interrelated, and all have an impact on the developing child. That everyone needs to work together to build a successful future for our youngest children An equitable and sufficient system of financing early childhood education is the United States is still elusive.
Child care is financed through a patchwork of government, parent, and private sector resources.
Public schools are financed largely through property taxes, which has created an inequitable distribution of resources within school districts and states, despite additional resources from states and the federal government. An equitable system of financing child care and early education requires a strong partnership between government, families, and the private sector. All Early Childhood Professionals are supported as professionals with a career ladder, ongoing professional development opportunities, and compensation that will attract and re-train high quality educators. All Families have access to early care and education programs that are affordable and of high quality, and are participants in the education and well being of their children through family involvement in programs and schools, as well as opportunities to increase their educational attainment. All Communities are accountability for the quality of early childhood programs provided to all children, backed by the local, state and federal funding needed to deliver quality programs and services.