DWD: Secretary Gassman’s Remarks on Week of the Young Child

Contact:
Rose Lynch, 608-266-6753

Remarks of Roberta Gassman
Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development
“Week of the Young Child”

We are here at Red Caboose today to celebrate the Week of the Young Child and to recognize Red Caboose as a one of our highest quality childcare centers in Wisconsin.

Governor Doyle is deeply committed to Wisconsin’s children and families and fully supports quality child care and early childhood education. I am happy to represent him here today. He wants all children to grow up safe, healthy and with the opportunity to be successful.

Quality childcare and early childhood education are vitally important to support our current and our future workforce. It is one of our best economic development tools and we need to continue to tell this great story.

Research has identified strong links between the quality of child care and child outcomes. High quality child care has significant effects on higher language ability and better school readiness. Studies show dramatic long-term effects of high quality early care and education intervention programs. Quality childcare means fewer work absences and greater productivity for working parents. And, children in quality care settings have enhanced developmental gains.

Estimates tell us that for every dollar invested, the return could be $7 — from reduced costs for remedial education and justice system expenditures, to increased earnings and projected tax revenues for our state.

We are celebrating the Week of the Young Child just before the Governor’s announcement of his children’s agenda in May. This week, and the Governor’s upcoming agenda for children, help call attention to the needs of young children and their families.

Red Caboose Day Care Center, and other centers like it throughout the state, offer quality child care to working parents. Also, Red Caboose was awarded a $2,000 accreditation grant by DWD just last month.

The theme for the Week of the Young Child 2004 is Children’s Opportunities–Our Responsibilities. Today we know more than ever before about the importance of a child’s earliest years in shaping their learning and development.

The Week of the Young Child is a time to recognize that creating opportunities for children is our universal responsibility. We must recommit ourselves to ensuring that each and every child experiences the type of stimulating early education in all of their environments-at home, in child care, at school, and in the community.

It is with great pleasure that I salute the staff, teachers and children of Red Caboose Daycare center and present this year’s Week of the Young Child proclamation here, a symbol of all quality centers throughout the state.