House Speaker addresses local early childhood education

KEYSTONE — Three goals to meet before the end of the decade include expanding early childhood education, enriching the learning environment and making sure every child has health insurance, said Colorado House of Representatives Speaker Andrew Romanoff Friday at the Early Childhood Option’s fifth Annual Fall Luncheon.

He was the keynote speaker for the charity event at Keystone Conference Center.

About half of children between the ages of 3 and 5 are not enrolled in preschool and kindergarten. Some of that is the parents’ choice, but some is not, Romanoff said.

“I think we ought to make access to kindergarten and preschool universal in Colorado,” he said, adding that doing so would come with a “big price tag.”

However, it is “a lot cheaper to build a child than repair an adult,” Romanoff said. Because of the early brain development, “if they don’t thrive by 5, you stack the odds against them.”

One of the ways to make strides in that direction will be if the voters approve the mill levy question next month asking for funding for full day kindergarten, Romanoff said. School districts only gained the ability to ask this year and that is the first step, he added.

Additionally, to enrich learning for children, there needs to be facility improvements throughout the state and quality teachers are essential, he said.

“In my view we’ve got better teachers than we deserve,” Romanoff said referring to their salaries. “We ought to pay teachers what they are worth.”

Also, education and health care are connected, he said.

“It’s hard to teach a child if they literally can’t see the chalkboard,” he said.

The state’s goal is for everyone to have insurance coverage by 2010 and that “needs to start somewhere. ... It should start with kids,” Romanoff said.

About 180,000 Colorado children are without health insurance, he said. About half are eligible for state programs, but that eligibility needs to expand to include all of them, he added.

During the afternoon luncheon Romanoff also presented the Summit County Champion for Children Award to the Town of Breckenridge to recognize their efforts with early childhood education and care. The Town is building a daycare center and is supporting it and other facilities with scholarships, teacher wages and more.

In this way and with the help of the voters who approved money for childcare a couple years ago, Summit County is a model for the state in early childhood education, Romanoff said.

Following the speech that received a standing ovation from the more than 100 Summit County government, childcare, health and other officials, Romanoff went on to describe early childhood education as the “single most important investment we can make in a child’s life.”

Romanoff talks about recent ‘seismic event’ in the House

Colorado House of Representatives Speaker Andrew Romanoff described the scene of the recent party switch that took place at the House as “controlled delirium.”

He witnessed the rare event as Rep. Debbie Stafford, 55, changed from the Republican to the Democratic Party Thursday. And while it doesn’t change the balance of power in the House, it does change how the ratios are arranged in committees, Romanoff said.

“It’s evidence that we’re trying to broaden our appeal,” he said. “It’s like she said, she is not leaving the Republican Party as much as the Republican Party left her.”

Now, half of the Democrats in the House are women, and it is the second highest percentage of women in a state House in the country, Romanoff said. There are 40 Democrats and 25 Republicans.

The House is focused on jobs, schools and health care and both the parties are working to affect these issues, he said.

<i>Lory Pounder can be reached at (970) 668-4628, or at lpounder@summitdaily.com.</i>