President Barack Obama has tough decisions to make. These decisions have been ilustrated recently in the long fought battle to pass a budget and the soon to be battle to raise the debt ceiling. However, President Obama has held firm on one piece of the budget, education. In October 2010, Obama stated, “If we’re serious about getting our fiscal house in order, we’ll need to make some tough choices. I’m prepared to make those choices...but what I’m not prepared to do is shortchange our children’s education.”

This educational investment is key as the United States seeks to compete in an ever growing global economy, as has been noted by the President.  By the time the youngest children on 2011 are ready to start Elementary school, there is no saying what type of educational future they will be facing. And that is why early childhood education is so important.

Overtime, it is estimated that investing in this program would result in an amount equal to that of 5 times greater than that of incentives provided to businesses.  

To continue to invest in the future also means investing in the development of quality teachers and support staff. As HR 555 outlines, the program will require degreed, certified and trained teachers. This requirement will only allow the program to become more successful and propel the United States to the top of the educational spectrum as it has been in the past.

We would like to invite you on our journey to advocate for these benefits. HR 555: Universal Pre-Kindergarten has not moved from the Educational subcommittee since its introduction in early February.  This program would provide matching grant funds to states which implement ciriculum based universal pre-kindergarten programs.

To support these programs is supporting the investment in the future and the children in the United States.

Please take a moment to sign the petion, below, and to follow our progress on twitter @UniversalPreK and "Like" us on facebook!