The ‘Children At Risk’ non-profit held a press conference today to announce their research findings of their study where they analyzed state funded day care across the state of Texas. Partnering with other local organizations like the Parenting Cottage and Early Learning Centers of Lubbock, they discovered that one out of every three Lubbock kindergartners is not prepared for elementary school. CEO of Children At Risk, Dr. Bob Sanborn said they are working to include more education in day cares.
“We need kids that are ready to learn and that’s not happening right now,” said Sanborn. “When they are ready to learn they will do better at third grade reading levels and they will graduate from high-school.”
The non-profit is compiling policy recommendations and heading to Austin in January for the eighty fifth legislation and they hope to present their study findings striving to make it easier for low income families to have access to high quality day care.
“Right now the state government gets a large influx of money from the federal governmental specifically for childcare,” said Sanborn. “We think if that money if used correctly it could go a long way.”
Lubbock Early Learning Centers currently implement some of the programs the non-profit is encouraging. They utilize pre-k curriculum for their two and three year olds. Mrs. Vicky Martinez is a teacher at one of the learning centers, and said it’s never too early to start teaching children.
“You need to keep a routine and structure for these children to learn and my goodness they are like sponges,” said Martinez. “They are like sponges and anything you teach them they will learn.”
