Prolonged Financial Malnutrition

In his article, "Prolonged Financial Malnutrition: Impact on our Field" in the May/June 2015 issue of Exchange, George Philipp observes:

"It is an amazing time to be in the early education field.  In every state and community we see new funding opportunities and innovative approaches to supporting young children.  Public acceptance of the importance of the first few years of life continues to spread rapidly.  But watching the dramatic evolution of our field over the last few decades, I find myself haunted by a fundamental question.  On the surface, we seem to be making great progress.  Public policy is catching up with the wealth of new research on child development.  New initiatives and funding opportunities are cropping up all over the country.  Yet despite this, our field still seems to be struggling.  Why is that?

"In my mind, historically and presently, one persistent core issue has prevented us from creating a high-quality system for all children.  That issue is the fact that we have never received adequate funding to achieve our goals.  And even when policymakers acknowledge that our field is currently underfunded, they fail to take into account the effects of decades of previous inadequate funding.  My diagnosis: the early education field is suffering the effects of prolonged financial malnutrition.

"A person suffering from prolonged malnutrition would exhibit the following symptoms: constant hunger, weakness, confusion, stress, depression, and desperation.  Analogously, these are all conditions that plague our field.  And just as a person suffering from prolonged malnutrition needs to be put on a long-term recovery plan, so, too, our field needs a long-term, comprehensive solution that will allow us to recover from decades of poor funding."

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