Early Education in the Republican Party Platform

As Republicans gather in St. Paul, Minn., this week to nominate John McCain for president, Early Ed Watch is taking a moment to look at what the 2008 Republican Party Platform says about early education. Here's the relevant section:

Early Childhood Education
The family is the most powerful influence on a child’s ability to succeed. As such, parents are our children’s first and foremost teachers. We support family literacy, which improves the literacy, language, and life skills of both parents and children along with the continued improvement of early childhood programs, such as Head Start, from low-income families. We reaffirm our support for the child care tax credit that helps parents choose the care best for their family.

It's exciting to see Republicans expressing support for quality early childhood education, rather than pandering to "culture war" conservatives who view early ed investments, wrongly, as an effort to remove children from the home, or taking up the Dalmia/Snell line on this issue. That's a positive step, and reflects the reality that state level Republicans, such as Alabama Governor Bob Riley, have been important leaders in expanding access to quality early education. We're still waiting, though, to see the McCain early education proposals that Lisa Graham Keegan promised at a New America education policy forum this July.

The platform also contains language on elementary and secondary education that is relevant to early education: In particular, it emphasizes the importance of early childhood education that builds children's pre-reading skills, as a way to reduce the need for special education services, and it specifically mentions phonics as a method that works to build children's basic skills. The Republican party platform calls for fully funding IDEA, advocates block granting other federal education spending programs, and supports vouchers, charter schools, tax credits, homeschooling, and other forms of school choice, including separate schools for boys and girls. See our coverage of the Democratic platform here.