Gun violence in schools and college affordability highest priorities for California voters, poll finds
Early Edge CA Executive Director, Patricia Lozano was quoted in an EdSource article in response to a survey about voter’s top education priorities.
In a new poll, 2,000 registered California voters ranked their top education priorities, with gun violence and college affordability the top ranked issues. The nonprofit organization PACE and the USC Rossier School of Education conducted the annual online poll and asked participants to choose from several “cradle to career” education spending priorities.
Survey respondents ranked expanding pre-K education programs and providing childcare for children age 0–3 lower than improving the quality of K-12 schools, keeping college affordable and ensuring career readiness for students.
In his proposed budget, Gov. Gavin Newsom allocated spending $1.8 billion on early childhood education, including funding for full-day kindergarten, and full-day preschool for low-income students.
“People are starting to talk about early learning now that the new administration is giving substantial money to it for the first time,” Patricia Lozano, executive director of Early Edge California said. “That presents an opportunity to explain its value.”
Adding that she understands why people are more concerned about the possibility of gun attacks in schools, Lozano said that an important role of early learning programs is children’s health and well-being: helping them make friends and feel comfortable in school as well as to identify behavior issues and provide resources early to parents, child-care providers and teachers that can prevent violence.