By Tony McVeigh/Jacque Day
Kentucky – Kentucky's Task Force on Early Childhood Development and Education is making its final recommendations to Governor Steve Beshear. Beshear recommends a model curriculum framework for pre-schoolers, incentives to increase participation in pre-school programs and adoption, and distribution of a school readiness definition.
"The concept of school readiness is so fundamental that the task force developed and adopted as its mission statement, the following definition: We want each child to enter school ready to engage in and benefit from early learning experiences that best promote the child's success: ready to grow, ready to learn, ready to succeed."
The 28-member panel met 16 times over the last 20 months. Their recommendation comes amid a move last week by U.S. Senate Democrats, who pulled a $1.1 trillion bill that included Early Childhood Education earmark funding.