Original Source | The Portland Business Journal
By Aliza Earnshaw, Friday April 21, 2006

A group of prominent business executives across the state is launching an initiative to allocate $40 million to early childhood education.

The group, which calls itself Ready for School, is still discussing what sort of action it might take. Its goal is to expand access to early education, starting with those most in need.

It also wants to make high-quality preschool programs available to all children in Oregon who qualify for Head Start, the national preschool program started in the 1960s that has proved its effectiveness preparing poor children for school success.

Original Source | The Oregonian
By John Tapogna, Bryce Ward, and Ed Whitelaw, Sunday March 26, 2006

Oregon's middle class -- that icon of society, schools and suburbs -- is struggling, says a recent study. The state's gap between incomes at the top and those in the middle grew at the 11th-fastest rate in the country during the past two decades.

But one study often contradicts another: witness the confounding back and forth over coffee consumption and low-fat diets. Just how much credence should we put into the struggling-middle-class claims?

Original Source | The Oregonian
Suzanne Pardington, Tuesday March 21, 2006

Cielo del Rosario will start kindergarten this fall knowing his letters, numbers and colors in Spanish and English. He can write his name, knows that the moon is rocky and that spring is the season when flowers bloom. He loves books so much he memorizes them.

He learned all this in Kristen Gray's kitchen.

Cielo is one of hundreds of Portland-area children bound to do better in life, advocates say, because Gray and other child care providers are learning to be more than baby-sitters.

Original Source | The Oregonian
Monday March 20, 2006

As timing goes, the City Club's is terrible.

Friday, its members accepted a new report calling for a new emphasis on early childhood education, with the state guaranteeing access to pre-kindergarten programs, increasing child-care subsidies to parents and directing resources to improving the quality of programs. Oregon needs, the report says, "sustained leadership, adequate and stable funding and a broad public understanding of the vital importance of early
childhood development. . . ."