October 20, 2011: Farmington, NM

November 1, 2011: Las Cruces, NM

January 12, 2012: Clovis, NM

Overview

In 2011, the Early Childhood Care and Education Act was signed into law to establish an early childhood system across the state and support quality programs for our state’s youngest children. New Mexico’s young people are our greatest asset. High quality early childhood care and education is vital to ensuring all New Mexico’s children can enter kindergarten ready to learn and succeed. Achievement of this goal will substantially influence the success of our youngest children and reap the economic success this will bring to our state. We now know that 85% of the brain develops before the fifth year of life. We also know the economic burden that every New Mexico taxpayer bears because of inadequate preparation of more than a third of New Mexico’s pre-school age children.

The focus of the Early Childhood Development Community Meetings was to outline the importance of public private partnerships in fulfilling the promise of the act and to share ideas about regional and local issues that affect our youngest children and their families.

It is important that parents, early childhood providers, civic leaders, business people, and policymakers share their ideas about how this act can meet the needs in their communities and provide opportunities for our state’s greatest asset for the future—our young people.