Mississippi must improve the quality of its pre-kindergarten early childhood education programs to mold a workforce capable of the skills necessary for high-tech jobs of the future.
That was the focus of Wednesday's Rural Early Childhood Forum on Young Children in the Mississippi Delta Conference at Mississippi Valley State University.
The conference was sponsored by the Early Childhood Institute of Mississippi State University and Valley's College of Education.
"We understand the importance of education and we can't wait until youngsters get in the first-grade to begin the process," said Dr. Lester Newman, Valley's president, in his opening remarks.
Mississippi is behind when it comes to pre-K education, Newman said.
"It is my understanding that we are the only state that does not have an early childhood program," he said.
Newman said Wednesday's daylong gathering could help change that for the better.
"When I look around the room here and see elected officials, business people, educators and community-based people, then I know that we have the people right here in this room that can begin that process," Newman said.
The conference was convened by the Mississippi Delta Revitalization Task Force. And Robert G. Clark, the task force's chairman, said improving the human capital of the Delta was the purpose of the conference.
"I believe the development of our people is the single most important thing that we can do to revitalize the Delta," he said.
The Delta has a large number of pressing needs, such as housing, health care, roads, jobs and adequate funding for education. However, developing a mandatory pre-K program is critical for the state's future, he said.
"Just as we needed mandatory kindergarten 25 years ago, we need a mandatory pre-kindergarten program today. The world is rapidly changing. Businesses demand educated, skilled workers," he said.
Clark, the former pro tempore of the state House of
Representatives, criticized the proposed immigration bill making its way on Capitol Hill.
He said the business community seems to be writing off "too many productive Americans. Not only here in Mississippi, but throughout the United States."
Oleta Fitzgerald, the regional director of the Southern Rural Black Women's Initiative for Economic and Social Justice, a program of the Children's Defense Fund, said a $5 million program funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, is showing promise.
Known as the Supporting Partnership to Assure Ready Kids (SPARK), it's operating in five schools districts in the Delta, Cleveland, Hollandale, North Bolivar and Mound Bayou.
SPARK serves children from the ages of 3 through 8.
She said the purpose of SPARK is to align the system between early childhood education and the public schools.
"When we first started the initiative, Head Start didn't like child care, child care didn't like Head Start. Child care felt that Head Start raided their children, all of their 4-year-old children," Fitzgerald said.
The system changed little when children entered public school, she said.
"When you got to the public schools. The public schools didn't like anybody. They didn't think that anybody could teach but them," Fitzgerald said.
Initially, she said, dialogues were started with each group separately to get constructive comments from each group.
Now, four years into the SPARK program, it is making a difference in the lives of nearly 900 children.
While encouraging as those results have been, the state still is lagging behind.
Fitzgerald cited a study by the Enterprise Corporation of the Delta, which showed that 39 percent of Mississippi families are low-income. And 56 percent of families in the state have a parent with no secondary education.
A total of 54,500 Mississippians hold down more than one job and almost 283,000 Mississippians were employed in occupations that paid wages that were below the poverty level.
"If we are going to change those statistics, we need to start with our children and we haven't started," Fitzgerald said.
