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Parents want strong early childhood learning opportunities for their kids and we see kids
coming into the K-12 system with gulfs of vast differences where they're at based on
their early learning opportunities. What's preventing our country from having universal
access to high-quality early learning opportunities? One of the things I'm most proud of what we
did in the first term is to put a huge amount of resources - about 500 million dollars - behind
early learning programs to significantly expand access and quality. Historically, our Department
played very little in this space and thrilled to do it. Why doesn't it happen when it seems
so common sense to you and I? Three and four-year olds don't vote, they don't have a PAC, they
don't have lobbyists and so it is a very easy thing for politicians to sort of walk away
from when budgets get tough. I am so proud of what the President did with Congress to
support first-term. I've said repeatedly everywhere I go, it is the best investment we can make.
We have to. We have to get out of the catch-up business. The best way to do that is to level
the playing field and have our five-year olds entering kindergarten ready to read, ready
to learn and ready to be successful in a social classroom.