001On Wednesday morning, the Green River Area Development District held their monthly board of directors meeting. The guest speaker was PreK forAll Advisory Committee Executive Director Sam [music] Flynn. Flynn discussed Governor Andy Basher's state funded pre kindergarten program. >> The way that we've narrowly tailored this [music] is so it's focusing on those families that currently cannot afford to send their children uh to private or nonprofit child care. [music] So those truly working families uh who are are having to sacrifice [music] have a parent leave the workforce uh to look after these kids. We have seen is kids that are in Head Start, [music] kids that are in public pre preschool, which we're talking about here today, kids that are in child care settings do significantly [music] better on kindergarten readiness assessments, in third grade assessments, in
002eighth grade assessments, and in graduating [music] high school. Benefits for kids. Number one, this is an educational [music] program. Our kids are behind the national average by a significant percentage. We believe [music] that expanding preschool access as many other states have done, red states and blue states. We had a jailer come to one of our town halls. Uh which actually surprised me. [music] Uh and this individual said, "Look, if you don't get to them now, I'm going to see them later." Why prek is good for a parent's [music] career. Parents are more likely to participate in the workforce. They're more likely to work one job instead [music] of two and they're less likely to switch jobs. So, this is about getting people back in the workforce and it's about [music] ensuring a stable workforce uh
003moving forward.