Statewide Feature

Democratic lawmakers including Reps. Michelle Cook, Chris Lyddy, Gary Holder-Winfield, Karen Jarmoc, Joan Lewis and Elizabeth Ritter joined host Rep. Toni Walker (D-New Haven) as lawmakers, members of the CT Early Childhood Alliance and other advocates urged for the protection of children from devastating budget cuts that had been proposed by Governor Rell in her most recent deficit mitigation plan.

The findings of the state's first comprehensive analysis of CT Department of Public Health's inspection reports couldn't have come out at a worse time, admits Judith Meyers, Child Health and Development Institute's president and CEO, with the deficit mitigation plan hitting early care and education in the state hard in November, but the results of the “Impact Study: Ensuring Health and Safety in CT's Early Care and Education Programs” are not meant to place blame or criticize, she said.

Some Discovery communities are just starting out when it comes to the idea of a Early Childhood Blueprint; others are ready to unveil their work on the project.

Did you know that quality early learning can save $175 million a year on corrections costs in Connecticut? Wouldn't that $175 million be better invested in preventing crime by investing in quality programs for children, rather than pay for incarceration? Seems more like a question of being proactive, rather than reactive.