National Survey Finds Support for Public Investments in Early Learning

The First Five Years Fund released the results of a national survey of voters on Wednesday. The survey found that a majority of Democrats, Republicans and Independents support better early childhood education programs for children from birth to age five, according to a release from CT Early Childhood Alliance. 

The CT Early Childhood Alliance, who blog on Patch on a variety of related topics, is a statewide membership and advocacy organization committed to improving outcomes in the areas of learning, health, safety and economic security, for children ages birth to eight.

The national phone survey of 800 registered voters was conducted by the bipartisan research team of Public Opinion Strategies and Hart Research. The survey found that 70 percent favored providing all low- and moderate-income 4-year-olds with access to high-quality preschool, adding education and child care for infants and toddlers, and offering home visiting and parent education programs for families according to the release.

"Connecticut has shown commitment to children with Governor Dannel P. Malloy making early childhood a priority during his tenure and the Legislature's strong support to create an Office of Early Childhood. It’s encouraging to see that voters nationwide feel the same way about early childhood investments,” said Maggie Adair, Executive Director of the Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance in the release. 

Other findings from the survey:

• Ensuring children get a strong start in life was seen as an important national priority by 86 percent of respondents—second only to increasing jobs and economic growth—and 13 points higher than reducing the tax burden on families.

• Voters say the country is not doing enough on this issue, with 70 percent saying it is an area we need to “do more.” This includes large majorities of voters who have children (77 percent) and those who do not have children in their household (66 percent). Virtually no one (2 percent) thinks we’re doing too much already.

The survey was conducted from July 8-11 by the bipartisan research team of Public Opinion Strategies and Hart Research on behalf of FFYF. The demographically representative sample was distributed proportionally throughout the country and reached registered voters on landlines and cell phones. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.46 percentage points according to the release.