Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report

Before they enter kindergarten, children who grow up in poverty are already falling behind. For example, on average, their vocabulary includes only one-third as many words as children the same age from middle- and high-income families.70 Head Start, the federal early education and care program, serves only about two out of five eligible preschool-age children (three- and four-year-olds) and Early Head Start serves just 4 percent of eligible infants and toddlers.71 Nationwide, about one-tenth of all children under the age of 5 are enrolled in Head Start or a state-based prekindergarten program (which, like Head Start, may also be means-tested).72 Experts consider the typical quality of early education in the United States to be low by developed-country standards.73 The United States is unique Figure 2.7 Preschool Enrollment Rates among peer nations in not providing universal public access France Netherlands to preschool in the year or two Spain before school entry.74 The fact Belgium that childcare workers generally Denmark earn poverty-level wages virtually Italy guarantees that the standards for Norway their training as educators will be United Kingdom Germany low. “In France, pre-kindergarten Iceland teachers are required to be more Sweden highly trained than public school Luxembourg teachers,” says author and econoHungary mist Robert Kuttner. “They must Austria Slovenia get additional course credits in Estonia public health and early child Portugal development, and they are comCzech Republic pensated accordingly.”75 In Nordic Latvia countries, early childhood educaIreland tion teachers are trained and paid Romania Switzerland the same as elementary school Lithuania teachers. Correlation may not Slovakia be causation, but in these counPoland tries, which provide some of the United States highest quality early education in Greece the world, people who grow up in Finland low-income homes are less likely Japan to remain poor as adults than their Malta American counterparts.76 Cyprus The share of early childhood Bulgaria education teachers and admin60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 istrators with a four-year college degree averaged 43 percent in the Source: UNICEF (2013), Child Well-being in Rich Countries. early 1980s, but fell to 30 percent 72? Chapter 2 n Bread for the World Institute

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