our founding fathers got it wrong
the miracle of our country isn’t that we
were all created equal
it’s that we recognize those who aren’t
equal and we make them so we do that
through civil rights movements there is
one today that is in its infancy
they are literally crying out for help
they are hungry to pursue their liberty
and their ability to achieve the next
civil rights movement is providing
low-income children with access to
high-quality early education this is an
important point in our history we know
that nearly half the children born today
are born into poverty to borrow from
Langston Hughes they are born into a
dream deferred we know from science that
the ability to achieve is not inborn
it’s made the early experiences for
developing emotional and social skills
are learned through early interactions
with caregivers from ages birth through
five these early experiences literally
build the structure of the brain
children who receive these experiences
do better those who don’t tend to
struggle there these struggles can
hardly be remediated later on we know
from research that the achievement gap
starts long before children get to
school and is difficult if not
impossible to close once they get their
children from affluent families get the
early education they need from their
parents at home or they can afford to
buy high quality early childhood
education while they’re at work those
children win the lottery children from
low-income families are consigned to be
unequal
their parents could work two or three
jobs and they still couldn’t afford to
send them to the high quality early
childhood program they would need to
succeed now if you don’t believe me let
me share a fact with you by the age of
three a child from a high-income family
will have a vocabulary of 1100 words
a child from a low-income family will
have a vocabulary of just 500 words
starting from behind means you stay
behind it’s being born into the bondage
of class and living with all of the
limits of being born on equal the
solution is to create a level playing
field for children so that they can
compete and they can can succeed I know
something about this and the importance
of extending our idea of civil rights to
children and early education because I
was a part of a civil rights fight I was
a plaintiff in Hollingsworth versus
Perry a landmark Supreme Court case that
provided me and many others the right to
marry a same-sex partner
I am also the executive director of the
first five years fund an advocacy
organization charged with gaining
greater government investments in
high-quality early childhood education
for low-income children the reason for
this is that we understand from science
that children’s brains are literally
growing every second through early
interactions with caregivers and trained
professionals their ability to learn is
directly related to the care they
receive extending our idea of civil
rights to the right of every child to
get the early education they need is
critically important in creating
equality I too experienced being born
unequal when that became evident to me
and a society fundamental freedoms were
immediately closed off openly falling in
love getting married having children
having the same rights as any spouse or
parent was not available to me society
thought that that should be okay but I
knew that in order to have my
aspirations met I had to have the same
rights as other people like thousands of
children born today I was born unequal
having my civil rights has immeasurably
improved the quality of my life
providing high quality early childhood
education to low-income children would
provide them with an infinite number of
opportunities it would improve our all
of our lives I know this because there
is research that shows that when we do
this children are more likely to
graduate from school they are more
likely to engage in healthy behaviors
they’re more likely to have full-time
employment and they’re also most likely
to contribute to society Nobel economist
James Heckman has found that for every
dollar we spend on early childhood
education
we experienced a 13% return on that
investment funding that we can use for
other purposes
funding that’s brought back to us by the
contributions made by the children we
invested in now you don’t have to take
this on face value this isn’t just true
in theory it’s also true in real life I
want to tell you about a little girl in
Denver Colorado Joe is the daughter of a
single working mother no matter how hard
jaws mom works she could never afford to
send Joe to a high-quality early
learning program but fortunately in
Colorado they provide some funding and
that gets mixed with federal funding
which allows Joe to attend Klayton early
learning every day at Clayton is a
learning and growing adventure for Joe
in the morning she can’t wait to get up
and go to school at night when her mom
comes to pick her up she rarely wants to
go home she is benefiting from the
structured intentional curriculum of
Clayton early learning Joe is incredibly
lucky the sky is the limit for Joe
thanks to early childhood education but
Joe is one in five of the low-income
children who get transformative early
education unfortunately 90% of children
who are eligible for federal programs do
not receive it for lack of funding this
is tragic this isn’t right we should not
be a part of this injustice this is the
next civil rights movement now I know
why you’re here but do you know how you
got here all right
raise your hand if you had a parent or a
relative or a caregiver stay home with
you and your earliest years keep your
hand up
if they took you shopping or to the
library or the zoo or the park and talk
to you constantly alright okay now put
your hand up if your parents could
afford to send you to preschool or
daycare while they were working all
right
now raise your hand if somebody saw
potential in you when you were very
young and proactively helped you to
develop it all right now look around the
room keep your hands up now you know how
you got here if you didn’t see
somebody’s hand up near you know that
they survived formidable odds just to be
here today now you don’t have to march
in the streets you don’t have to take
this to the Supreme Court but you do
have to lend a helping hand to children
like Joe thousands of children like Joe
you need to take them with you to the
voting booth you need to talk about them
to candidates that are running for
office you need to insist that we do
everything we can to help them reach
their full potential transformative
early childhood education is the great
equalizer it will break the bonds of
class everyone is succeeds when everyone
is included thank you
the miracle of our country isn’t that we
were all created equal
it’s that we recognize those who aren’t
equal and we make them so we do that
through civil rights movements there is
one today that is in its infancy
they are literally crying out for help
they are hungry to pursue their liberty
and their ability to achieve the next
civil rights movement is providing
low-income children with access to
high-quality early education this is an
important point in our history we know
that nearly half the children born today
are born into poverty to borrow from
Langston Hughes they are born into a
dream deferred we know from science that
the ability to achieve is not inborn
it’s made the early experiences for
developing emotional and social skills
are learned through early interactions
with caregivers from ages birth through
five these early experiences literally
build the structure of the brain
children who receive these experiences
do better those who don’t tend to
struggle there these struggles can
hardly be remediated later on we know
from research that the achievement gap
starts long before children get to
school and is difficult if not
impossible to close once they get their
children from affluent families get the
early education they need from their
parents at home or they can afford to
buy high quality early childhood
education while they’re at work those
children win the lottery children from
low-income families are consigned to be
unequal
their parents could work two or three
jobs and they still couldn’t afford to
send them to the high quality early
childhood program they would need to
succeed now if you don’t believe me let
me share a fact with you by the age of
three a child from a high-income family
will have a vocabulary of 1100 words
a child from a low-income family will
have a vocabulary of just 500 words
starting from behind means you stay
behind it’s being born into the bondage
of class and living with all of the
limits of being born on equal the
solution is to create a level playing
field for children so that they can
compete and they can can succeed I know
something about this and the importance
of extending our idea of civil rights to
children and early education because I
was a part of a civil rights fight I was
a plaintiff in Hollingsworth versus
Perry a landmark Supreme Court case that
provided me and many others the right to
marry a same-sex partner
I am also the executive director of the
first five years fund an advocacy
organization charged with gaining
greater government investments in
high-quality early childhood education
for low-income children the reason for
this is that we understand from science
that children’s brains are literally
growing every second through early
interactions with caregivers and trained
professionals their ability to learn is
directly related to the care they
receive extending our idea of civil
rights to the right of every child to
get the early education they need is
critically important in creating
equality I too experienced being born
unequal when that became evident to me
and a society fundamental freedoms were
immediately closed off openly falling in
love getting married having children
having the same rights as any spouse or
parent was not available to me society
thought that that should be okay but I
knew that in order to have my
aspirations met I had to have the same
rights as other people like thousands of
children born today I was born unequal
having my civil rights has immeasurably
improved the quality of my life
providing high quality early childhood
education to low-income children would
provide them with an infinite number of
opportunities it would improve our all
of our lives I know this because there
is research that shows that when we do
this children are more likely to
graduate from school they are more
likely to engage in healthy behaviors
they’re more likely to have full-time
employment and they’re also most likely
to contribute to society Nobel economist
James Heckman has found that for every
dollar we spend on early childhood
education
we experienced a 13% return on that
investment funding that we can use for
other purposes
funding that’s brought back to us by the
contributions made by the children we
invested in now you don’t have to take
this on face value this isn’t just true
in theory it’s also true in real life I
want to tell you about a little girl in
Denver Colorado Joe is the daughter of a
single working mother no matter how hard
jaws mom works she could never afford to
send Joe to a high-quality early
learning program but fortunately in
Colorado they provide some funding and
that gets mixed with federal funding
which allows Joe to attend Klayton early
learning every day at Clayton is a
learning and growing adventure for Joe
in the morning she can’t wait to get up
and go to school at night when her mom
comes to pick her up she rarely wants to
go home she is benefiting from the
structured intentional curriculum of
Clayton early learning Joe is incredibly
lucky the sky is the limit for Joe
thanks to early childhood education but
Joe is one in five of the low-income
children who get transformative early
education unfortunately 90% of children
who are eligible for federal programs do
not receive it for lack of funding this
is tragic this isn’t right we should not
be a part of this injustice this is the
next civil rights movement now I know
why you’re here but do you know how you
got here all right
raise your hand if you had a parent or a
relative or a caregiver stay home with
you and your earliest years keep your
hand up
if they took you shopping or to the
library or the zoo or the park and talk
to you constantly alright okay now put
your hand up if your parents could
afford to send you to preschool or
daycare while they were working all
right
now raise your hand if somebody saw
potential in you when you were very
young and proactively helped you to
develop it all right now look around the
room keep your hands up now you know how
you got here if you didn’t see
somebody’s hand up near you know that
they survived formidable odds just to be
here today now you don’t have to march
in the streets you don’t have to take
this to the Supreme Court but you do
have to lend a helping hand to children
like Joe thousands of children like Joe
you need to take them with you to the
voting booth you need to talk about them
to candidates that are running for
office you need to insist that we do
everything we can to help them reach
their full potential transformative
early childhood education is the great
equalizer it will break the bonds of
class everyone is succeeds when everyone
is included thank you
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