Pres. Obama's Early Education Plan for Children

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

February 14, 2013

President Obama’s Plan for Early Education for all Americans

“In states that make it a priority to educate our youngest children…studies show students grow up more likely to read and do math at grade level, graduate high school, hold a job, form more stable families of their own.  We know this works.  So let’s do what works and make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind.”

                                                                                                President Barack Obama

                                                                                                State of the Union, February 12, 2013

The beginning years of a child’s life are critical for building the early foundation needed for success later in school and in life.  Leading economists agree that high-quality early learning programs can help level the playing field for children from lower-income families on vocabulary, social and emotional development, while helping students to stay on track and stay engaged in the early elementary grades.  Children who attend these programs are more likely to do well in school, find good jobs, and succeed in their careers than those who don’t.  And research has shown that taxpayers receive a high average return on investments in high-quality early childhood education, with savings in areas like improved educational outcomes, increased labor productivity, and a reduction in crime. 

In his State of the Union address, President Obama called on Congress to expand access to high-quality preschool to every child in America.  As part of that effort, the President will propose a series of new investments that will establish a continuum of high-quality early learning for a child – beginning at birth and continuing to age 5.  By doing so, the President would invest critical resources where we know the return on our dollar is the highest: in our youngest children.

·         Providing High-Quality Preschool for Every Child:  The President is proposing a new federal-state partnership to provide all low- and moderate-income four-year old children with high-quality preschool, while also expanding these programs to reach additional children from middle class families and incentivizing full-day kindergarten policies. This investment – financed through a cost-sharing model with states – will help close America’s school readiness gap and ensure that children have the chance to enter kindergarten ready for success.

·         Growing the Supply of Effective Early Learning Opportunities for Young Children: To expand high-quality early learning opportunities in the years before preschool, the President will call for a significant investment in a new Early Head Start-Child Care partnership.  Competitive grants will support communities that expand the availability of Early Head Start and child care providers that can meet the highest standards of quality for infants and toddlers, serving children from birth through age 3. 

·         Extending and Expanding Evidence-Based, Voluntary Home Visiting: Voluntary home visiting programs enable nurses, social workers, and other professionals to connect families to services and educational support that will improve a child’s health, development, and ability to learn.   President Obama has already committed $1.5 billion to expand home visitation to hundreds of thousands of America’s most vulnerable children and families across all 50 states.  The President will pursue substantial investments to expand these important programs to reach additional families in need.

The President’s Commitment to Early Education

A zip code should never predetermine the quality of any child’s educational opportunities.  Yet studies show that children from low-income families are less likely to have access to high-quality early education, and less likely to enter school prepared for success.  By third grade, children from low-income families who are not reading at grade level are six times less likely to graduate from high school than students who are proficient.  Often, the high costs of private preschool and lack of public programs also narrow options for middle-class families.

High-quality early childhood education provides the foundation for all children’s success in school and helps to reduce achievement gaps.  Despite the individual and economic benefits of early education, our nation has lagged in its commitment to ensuring the provision of high quality public preschool in our children’s earliest years. The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates that the United States ranks 28^th out of 38 countries for the share of four-year olds enrolled in early childhood education.  And fewer than 3 in 10 four-year olds are enrolled in high-quality programs. 

Preschool for All

·         The President’s proposal will improve quality and expand access to preschool, through a cost sharing partnership with all 50 states, to extend federal funds to expand high-quality public preschool to reach all low- and moderate-income four-year olds from families at or below 200% of poverty.  The U.S. Department of Education will allocate dollars to states based their share of four-year olds from low- and moderate-income families and funds would be distributed to local school districts and other partner providers to implement the program.  The proposal would include an incentive for states to broaden participation in their public preschool program for additional middle-class families, which states may choose to reach and serve in a variety of ways, such as a sliding-scale arrangement.

·         Funds will support states as they ensure that children are enrolled in high-quality programs.   In order to access federal funding, states would be required to meet quality benchmarks that are linked to better outcomes for children, which include:

o   State-level standards for early learning;

o   Qualified teachers for all preschool classrooms; and

o   A plan to implement comprehensive data and assessment systems.

Preschool programs across the states would meet common and consistent standards for quality across all programs, including:

o   Well-trained teachers, who are paid comparably to K-12 staff;

o   Small class sizes and low adult to child ratios;

o   A rigorous curriculum;

o   Comprehensive health and related services; and

o   Effective evaluation and review of programs.

·         The proposal also encourages states to expand the availability of full-day kindergarten.  Only 6 out of 10 of America’s kindergarten students have access to a full day of learning.  In order to ensure that our kindergartners spend the time they need in school to reach rigorous benchmarks and standards, funds under this program may also be used to expand full-day kindergarten once states have provided preschool education to low- and moderate-income four year-olds.

·         Under the President’s proposal, investment in the federal Head Start program will continue to grow.  The President’s plan will maintain and build on current Head Start investments, to support a greater share of infants, toddlers, and three-year olds in America’s Head Start centers, while state preschool settings will serve a greater share of four-year olds. 

Quality Early Learning for Our Youngest Children

·         The President will also launch a new Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership program, to support states and communities that expand the availability of Early Head Start and child care providers that can meet the highest standards of quality for infants and toddlers, serving children from birth through age 3.  Funds will be awarded through Early Head Start on a competitive basis to enhance and support early learning settings; provide new, full-day, comprehensive services that meet the needs of working families; and prepare children for the transition into preschool.  This strategy – combined with an expansion of publicly funded preschool education for four-year olds – will ensure a cohesive and well-aligned system of early learning for children from birth to age five. 

·         The President is proposing to expand the Administration’s evidence-based home visiting initiative, through which states are implementing voluntary programs that provide nurses, social workers, and other professionals to meet with at-risk families in their homes and connect them to assistance that impacts a child’s health, development, and ability to learn. These programs have been critical in improving maternal and child health outcomes in the early years, leaving long-lasting, positive impacts on parenting skills; children’s cognitive, language, and social-emotional development; and school readiness. This will help ensure that our most vulnerable Americans are on track from birth, and that later educational investments rest upon a strong foundation. 

Building on Success

President Obama has committed to a comprehensive early learning agenda for America’s children that begins at birth and provides the support and services needed to set them on a path of success in school and in life:

·         Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge: The Early Learning Challenge has rewarded 14 states that have agreed to raise the bar on the quality of their early childhood education programs, establish higher standards across programs and provide critical links with health, nutrition, mental health, and family support for our neediest children.

·         Head Start and Early Head Start: President Obama has made historic investments in the Head Start and Early Head Start programs to reach an additional 61,000 children.  Under the President’s leadership, enrollment in Early Head Start in particular has nearly doubled.  The Obama Administration has also implemented needed reform in the Head Start program by identifying lower-performing grantees and ensuring that those failing to meet new, rigorous benchmarks face new competition for continued federal funding. 

·         Supporting our Federal Child Care System: The President has proposed new investments to expand access and quality in the Child Care and Development Block Grant.

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Dear God We Need Your Help

Dear God:

We need help.

I cannot believe that we as a nation of rational, thinking belivers still think that any type of gun control or regulation will turn the tide of violence that has engulfed our nation. I cannot believe we do not believe in you. I cannot believe that we will not pray together.

The Devil is kicking our asses. Satan is beating us like a pimp beats a hooker.  Lucifer, the father of all lies, is tricking us into killing ourselves and we still won’t turn to God and pray. Instead we dry our tears pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and walk right back into Satan’s hateful arms, ready for another beating.

I don’t get it.

Plenty of people here in America and on this earth have some rememberence of their religious upbringing and understand what SPIRITUAL WAREFARE IS ABOUT.  Those people need to step up and start talking about what they know--outside of church. In short, we all need to actually do what the Pastors and the Reverends and the Fathers have been telling us to do each Sunday. We have to do what Jesus said to do 2000 years ago. We must obey God, as our knees are bent and our tongues are confessing on every airwave, "God help us".

A cry to God is what I hear, in essence, coming from every news reader. It is what every reporter is reporting.

There are plenty of people who work in the mental health arena and understand what is broken with our system and what works. We need to start a conversation with those people and listen to what they say and then do what they say.

We cannot be a nation of rational beings and continue on this way. We are our brother's keeper, our sister's keeper whether we want to be or not. If we are not then we are neglectful in our duties. How can we count ourselves amongst the civilized groups of people we yearn to belong to and be socially accepted by but literally be civically neglectful? It won't work. It defies logic.

When we pray, en masse, God hears us. He said if the people who are called by my name would turn from their sin and pray, He will hear us and help us God will heal us if we ask, in other words.

We are a world of children - spiritual children - and it is due time we grew up. It is not just the politician who needs to do something. We the people need to do something as well. If we allow 20 angels to be murdered and do nothing, God help us all as we are spiritually dead. The spiritually dead are zombies.

Our belief in God has nothing to do with His existence. Our refusal to obey God has nothing to do with the strength of His Law or Rule. Like an impudent child, we will be chastised as an unchastised child is unloved. We are loved but hardheaded. We refuse to listen, to act in accordance to His Word or to wake up. We buy pins and buttons, we protest and march but we won't pray, seemingly.

The children are dead. They are the latest in a long, long list of martyrs who still cry out to God, “how long?”

Report what you see and hear. Help a family struggling with a mentally ill relative. Politicians need to on Monday, begin to unravel the red tape mess that is our mental health system. Disabled people and their families need and deserve our full attention.

Understand that a gun is not the problem. Guns would go unused and litter the streets like plastic grocery bags if no one used them. Even if every person in America each owned three guns, if they went unused, unloaded they would be meaningless.

 People are the problem. People who buy and use guns for violence are the problem. Let us be our own keepers of self and help ourselves by attending to the people who buy and use guns for violence. Be damned the economy of the gun industry. Let's save some lives.

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Obama Administration Challenges China at WTO over Unfair Practices in the Auto and Auto Parts Industries

In Indiana, the auto-parts industry directly employs 52,600.  And the auto industry – after taking into account the impact from associated industries like steel, aluminum, plastics, and electronics and the impact on communities around the state – supports over 510,000 total jobs or 13.9 percent of the state’s total employment.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

_____________________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 17, 2012

On Monday, the Obama Administration is launching an enforcement action against China at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for illegally subsidizing exports in their autos and auto-parts sectors, a practice that is putting U.S. auto parts manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage and that is encouraging the outsourcing of auto-parts production to China. 

·         The auto manufacturing industry directly employs over 770,000 people in the United States, with roughly 475,000 of these jobs in auto parts manufacturing:  And these numbers do not include all of the jobs supported in associated industries such as steel, aluminum, plastics, and electronics.  According to the Center for Automotive Research, the auto sector in total supports 8 million American jobs.

o   In Indiana, the auto-parts industry directly employs 52,600.  And the auto industry – after taking into account the impact from associated industries like steel, aluminum, plastics, and electronics and the impact on communities around the state – supports over 510,000 total jobs or 13.9 percent of the state’s total employment.

·         This case highlights the impact that the Interagency Trade Enforcement Center (ITEC):  The President announced the creation of  the ITEC in this year’s State of the Union address and it is already having an impact in the Administration’s ability to challenge unfair trade practices around the world.

·         The Administration is also on Monday taking the next formal step in a WTO case launched in July against China’s unfair imposition of duties on more than $3 billion in exports of U.S.-made automobiles:  The Chinese duties cover more than 80 percent U.S. auto exports to China and disproportionately fall on General Motors and Chrysler products because of the actions that President Obama took to support the U.S. auto industry during the financial crisis.

·         The key principle at stake is that China must play by the rules of the global trading system:  When it does not, the Obama Administration will take action to ensure that American businesses and workers are competing on a level playing field.

·         Today’s action builds on the Obama Administration’s record of strong trade enforcement to date:  We have more than doubled the rate of trade cases against China compared to the prior Administration and took the first-ever safeguard action against a surge of Chinese tire imports.

Background on Monday’s WTO Enforcement Action against

China’s “Export Bases” Program

The United States will announce on Monday that it has initiated a WTO enforcement action against China for providing impermissible export subsidies to auto and auto-parts manufacturers located in at least twelve designated “export bases.”

·         China is violating WTO prohibitions on export-contingent subsidies:  By providing a range of subsidies to auto and auto-parts producers directly linked to the firms’ exports, China is not only violating WTO prohibitions on export-contingent subsidies, but also its own agreement to eliminate export subsidies when it joined the WTO in 2001. 

·         All told, China’s illegal subsidies to auto and auto-parts exporters amounted to at least $1 billion between 2009 and 2011:  These subsides and may benefit up to 60 percent of Chinese auto-parts exports.  

·         China’s export subsidy program is hurting the U.S. auto-parts industry and, specifically, U.S. auto workers by:

o   Contributing to the outsourcing of auto auto-parts production to China – not for sale into the Chinese market, but rather for export into the United States and third markets. 

o   Putting U.S. auto-parts manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage precisely because we are playing by global trade rules.

·         Monday’s case highlights the impact that the ITEC, the Administration’s new trade enforcement unit, is already having in our ability to challenge unfair trade practices around the world:  The ITEC, which the President announced in this year’s State of the Union address, is bringing to bear greater resources and enhanced cross-government coordination to investigate and challenge practices that tilt the playing field against U.S. businesses and workers.

The production of original equipment and aftermarket parts for passenger vehicles has been a central element of U.S. manufacturing for over a century.  The auto parts sector has provided well-paying and secure employment that has helped support middle-class families and communities across our country.

·         The auto manufacturing industry directly employs over 770,000 people in the United States, with roughly 475,000 of these jobs in auto parts manufacturing:  And these numbers do not include all of the jobs supported in associated industries such as steel, aluminum, plastics, and electronics.  According to the Center for Automotive Research, the auto sector in total supports 8 million American jobs.

·         In Indiana, the auto-parts industry directly employs 52,600:  And the auto industry – after taking into account the impact from associated industries like steel, aluminum, plastics, and electronics and the impact on communities around the state –  supports over 510,000 total jobs or 13.9 percent of the state’s total employment.

·         However, government statistics show that the U.S. auto-parts sector has suffered a sharp drop in jobs since 2000:  Domestic employment in this sector fell by roughly half from 2001 to 2010. 

·         That trend has coincided with a nearly seven-fold increase in imports of auto parts from China: This has resulted in a five-fold increase in China’s share of U.S. auto-parts imports from two percent of all U.S. imports to over ten percent.

Monday’s action aims to compel China to unwind its prohibited export subsidy program and to help level the international playing field for U.S. businesses and workers in the auto and auto parts industries.

Background on Next Step on WTO Enforcement Action

Against China’s Unfair Duties on U.S. Auto Exports

The United States will also announce on Monday that it is taking the next step in a WTO enforcement action launched in July over China’s unfair imposition of antidumping and countervailing duties on approximately $3.3 billion in U.S. automobile exports to China.

·         Specifically, the Administration is now positioned to formally request that the WTO form a dispute settlement panel to consider our case:  Sixty days have now elapsed since we initiated consultations with the Chinese on this issue in early July. 

·         China unfairly imposed antidumping and countervailing duties on approximately $3.3 billion in U.S. automobile exports to China:

o   In December 2011, China imposed anti-dumping (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD) on the roughly 92,000 large-engine automobiles and SUVs, worth approximately $3.3 billion, exported each year from the United States.

o   The Chinese AD duties range from 2.0 percent to 8.9 percent, and the CVDs range from 6.2 percent to 12.9 percent.

·         The Chinese duties impact more than 80 percent of our total 2011 auto exports to China: Higher duties affect imports of cars produced by GM and Chrysler expressly because of the support they received from the U.S. government during the financial crisis. 

Background on President Obama’s Trade Enforcement Record

Since day one of his Administration, the President has fought to ensure that American businesses and workers are competing on a level playing field with their international competitors – and he has taken action to stop unfair trade practices abroad, including in China.

·         We have doubled rate of (WTO) trade cases against China compared to the prior administration:

o   For example, last March the Administration launched a rare earths WTO case against China:  Rare earths elements are key inputs in advanced manufacturing products like wind turbines and lithium ion batteries.  Right now China restricts their export, which keeps prices down for their manufacturers and increases prices for ours.  That's not fair, and that's why we've taken action.

·         In September 2009, President Obama ordered first-ever safeguard action applied to a surge of tire imports from China: U.S. tire production has increased more than 10 percent since that time, adding over 1,000 workers in the process.

·         We have now stood up a new trade enforcement unit, which the President announced in this year’s State of the Union address:  This new unit helped to drive Monday’s enforcement action and is substantially enhancing our ability to investigate and challenge unfair trade practices around the world.

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