OHIO — One Ohio organization is calling for greater investments for early childhood years, citing a 2023 analysis.
What You Need To Know
- According to Groundwork Ohio, more than six out of 10 kids are not ready for kindergarten when it’s time to start
- 9% of white families had a job change due to problems with child care in the past year, compared to 20.5% of Black families
- Groundwork Ohio believes there is a disconnect between what families are facing and investments to help
- To learn more from the analysis, click here.
From the analysis, the same number of kids are not on target when it comes to fourth grade reading and eighth grade math.
Lynanne Gutierrez, Chief Operating and Policy Officer for Groundwork Ohio said that over the last two years, they’ve zeroed in on early childhood years and development strategies as the most important, setting the foundation for the rest of their life and indicating whether or not they’ll be successful.
“When we continue to see really stubborn statistics around kindergarten readiness, with over 62% of our Ohio kindergarteners coming to the classroom not ready to learn, we have to really dig in and investigate what’s happening in those first five years,” said Gutierrez
Gutierrez went on to say that while many families bounced back from the pandemic, a number of others did not fare so well when it came to resiliency.
“We are faced with the reality that we ranked 50th in the nation, and that is because there’s a real, I think, disconnect between what families are facing and the policy investments and investments are behind them to make things easier for families.”
She pointed to data that tracks job changes within the last 12 months for families who have 0-5 year olds.
“So we notice this problem is pervasive and getting worse with the consistent lack of affordable childcare. But when we look at white families, we see that 9% of those families had a job change due to problems with child care in the past year; But when we look at Black families, that number jumps to 20.5%.”
Seeing and understanding the disproportionate challenges on so many levels, Gutierrez said there’s a great need for state policymakers to prioritize young children and families, so that those families can invest in the long-term success of their children while also providing economic stability.
