The Invest Early Coalition, including Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families and the Arkansas Early Childhood Association, needs your help to tell legislators about the importance of early childhood education and ask for their support of SB618, the Early Childhood Education Workforce Quality Incentive.

85% of core brain development happens by the age of 3, making the early years of education critical for a child's long-term success. But for far too long, early childhood educators have been undervalued in our economy. And to keep costs affordable for parents, centers often cannot increase tuition fees to pay for higher educator salaries. Because of this issue, many great teachers end up leaving the field.

The problem is so bad a 2018 report released by UAMS found that 40% of early childhood educators surveyed were food insecure. They don't always know where their next meal is coming from.  

But SB618, a four-year pilot program, would help by providing early childhood educators making less than the state minimum K-12 public school teacher salary, a tax incentive based on their highest credential level. Tell your legislators to help keep great educators in the classroom and support SB618.
Write them today to tell them why early childhood education matters to you.

And please share the alert with your network, so lawmakers hear from as many Arkansans as possible.