经济学人下载:学前教育经费走到了头

Preschool funding
学前教育经费

Toddle to the top
走到了头

Cash-strapped states cut funding for nurseries
资金短缺的州政府削减了对托儿所的经费

May 5th 2011 | NEW YORK | from the print edition

They can’t take that away from me
他们不能把它给拿走

LILY, who is three-and-a-half, loves her nursery school in Queens. Her mother calls her “the sponge” because every day she comes home with new nuggets of knowledge. But not every child is as lucky as Lily. A new report by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) shows that states’ preschool funding is declining, which means fewer children will have access to early education, which most agree is essential especially for children living in low-income households. The study looked at the 40 states which fund programmes for three- or four-year-olds. “State cuts to preschool funding transformed the recession into a depression for many young children,” says Steven Barnett, author of the NIEER report.

莉莉，一个三岁半的小女孩，爱她的位于纽约皇后区的托儿所。她妈妈 叫她“海绵宝宝”，因为每天她都带着一些新的知识回家。但并不是每个小孩都像莉莉那么幸运。一份美国国家早期教育研究所（NIEER）的新报告显示，各州的学前教育经费正在减少，这意味着更多的孩子将失去接受学前教育的机会。大多数人都同意说这极为重要，尤其是对生活在低收入家庭中的儿童。该研究对40个设立了对三到四岁儿童资金项目的州进行了调查。“州政府削减学前教育经费，对许多儿童来说，就相当于把经济衰退变成 济大萧条，”史蒂芬．巴纳特说道。他是NIEER的这份新报告的作者。