Pew Grant Establishes Advocacy Center to Improve Early Education Quality and Access in the U.S.

Philadelphia, PA—April 9, 2002—The Pew Charitable Trusts, the country's seventh largest foundation, has awarded a grant of nearly $4 million to create a new advocacy center for early education, The Trust for Early Education (TEE). The new Washington-based nonprofit organization will work at the federal level to expand support for more effective early education for all three- and four-year-olds and to enhance existing state level campaigns for voluntary universal preschool.

TEE was created as a supporting organization of the Education Trust, widely recognized as a respected, influential advocacy organization that produces and uses hard data to inform the public and policy makers of the need for evidence-based state and federal policy—mainly in the K-12 sector. Amy Wilkins, a principal partner of the Education Trust, will lead TEE. Wilkins is widely regarded as one of the most influential education advocates in the country.

Today's announcement of The Trust for Early Education follows President Bush's announcement of his proposal to expand school reforms to the nation's early child-care programs and establish a "new accountability" system for Head Start. His announcement, however, did not include new money to Head Start or to develop new standards to more closely coordinate with K-12 education goals.

"Early Education is indeed the next major issue," said Wilkins. "We need higher standards, better staff, and more resources – but two out of three won't do. We need real resources to make a difference for little kids. The next two years are critical for this debate. The Bush administration needs to do more."

The new grant to establish TEE is part of The Pew Charitable Trusts' larger initiative, which is investing in a variety of activities to help the public and policy-makers understand why improvements to early education are critical to help children succeed in education and life. The Pew Trusts believe that a greater understanding of this critical issue will move state policymakers to improve the quality of and access to early education in their states.

In addition to the new advocacy center, Pew awarded a $5.3 million grant to create the National Institute for Early Education Research in late December 2001. The newly-opened center has begun to support new research initiatives and plans to provide the Trust for Early Education, policymakers, advocates and public interest organizations with the fact-based information they need to make informed decisions. Although there are many organizations conducting various research studies related to early education, most are focused on academic research, leaving significant gaps in the information available to improve the design and implementation of federal and state policies.

"Federal policy makers have begun to debate how best to provide education for 3- and 4-year olds and how it should be designed to improve school readiness," said Urahn. "No strong voice now exists to provide them with sound data grounded in cutting edge research. We hope Pew's investment in both a research center and an advocacy center—as well as giving support to states and other key partners—will fill these critical gaps."


"When we looked at the type of pre-kindergarten education is available," said Urahn, "we found that there is no coherent approach to early care and education for three- and four-year-olds this country. Instead, there is a patchwork collection of programs, many federally funded, like Head Start, and child care support—supplemented in some states and serving relatively few of even the most disadvantaged children in this country. We hope Pew's support can help to solve this problem."






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