Finally, we have elected a President who truly “gets” the importance of early education. For years, research has taught us the importance of the first years of life – and how critical investments in these early years can pay off exponentially in the long run. Now, we have a President of the United States who understand this!

Every time I heard President Obama make a speech on the campaign trail, I cheered at the television when he talked about the importance of early learning. This week, those words were put into action with the introduction of the Early Learning Challenge Fund in Congress.

At the NAACP Centennial Dinner this week, President Obama said that we should “raise the bar when it comes to early learning programs” as he described his challenge to America’s governors: “if you …. Develop an effective model for early learning; if you focus reform on standards and results in early learning programs; if you demonstrate how you will prepare the lowest income children to meet the highest standards of success – you can compete for an Early Learning Challenge Grant that will help prepare all of our children to enter kindergarten ready to learn."

The Early Learning Challenge Fund legislation has been introduced by Congressman George Miller, and it includes $10 billion in federal investments over the next 10 years representing a significant investment in early learning. The bill has just been introduced, so we have a long way to go before it is enacted, but this is a very exciting first step.

Of course, the news for Florida is mixed because as it stands now, this is a challenge grant with priority going to states who have significantly increased their expenditures on early learning in recent years. Unfortunately, Florida is the only state in the nation to decrease funding for pre-K in the past year, which means that Florida’s young children may end up missing out on these precious federal dollars. Sound familiar?

Let’s talk about education - last year, Florida’s Governor had to apply for a waiver to receive federal stimulus dollars for education. Let’s talk about children’s health insurance - every year, Florida leaves money in Washington that could provide health insurance for our children, which is instead going to provide health insurance for children in other states.

We should all be excited about President Obama’s commitment to early learning – let’s just hope his challenge is heard in every state so that Florida’s children do not miss out…again.

For more information about the legislation, check out this fact sheet.