New London Day editorial staff agrees that Connecticut should be providing children, especially low-income children, with a preschool education, as it remains the best investment a government can make. But there are stipulations - the program must be carefully designed with certified educators overseeing child care professionals focused on clear curriculum goals.

Front-end spending in education makes more sense than playing catch-up with remedial work, says the editorial staff of the Kearney (Nebraska) Hub.

The study provides new data from the long-running, highly-regarded Abecedarian Project.

Another round of Race to the Top could be heading our way - and this time, it's focusing on school districts. One possible use for the funding? Early childhood education.

Preschool is the appropriate time to begin teaching children healthy eating habits, to encourage a lifetime of good health and prevent obesity.

Early education blogger Sara Mead looks at the correlation between states that have a high percentage of students in state pre-k programs and high Early Learning Challenge scores. Having such a program did not necessarily translate into high ELC scores, she found out. That's because, Mead says, ELC was more about systems-building and quality child care than it was about pre-k.

The recession slowed the growth of public prekindergarten programs, as school districts work with shrinking budgets. This trend puts children from low-income families who start kindergarten without a quality pre-k experience 18 months behind children who did have that experience.

A glimpse at the need for round-the-clock availability for child care, as more and more Americans take on nontraditional work hours.

In a plan to close California's budget deficit, Governor Jerry Brown has proposed cutting transitional kindergarten, a new grade level put into place by former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with the signing of legislation that raised the age for kindergarten attendance.

Danbury News-Times reporter Eileen FitzGerald penned an editorial piece recently for her newspaper, noting that with a new commissioner at the Department of Education with fresh ideas and passionate leaders and advocates working torward the same goal, Connecticut has the opportunity to understand what needs to change and have the courage to make that change possible.