Shreveport city leaders are looking at plan to help get more children ready for elementary school.

The city council is considering a measure to move $215 thousand dollars from the city reserve fund to an Early Childhood Education Initiative. This money will provide funding for up to an additional 180 more children to be able to attend Early Childcare Centers on scholarships. The goal is to help these youngsters be better prepared for kindergarten. Experts say the data clearly shows the earlier a child gets started with education, the better they perform throughout elementary school

The Community Foundation of North Louisiana will administer the program.

State Education Superintendent Dr. Cade Brumley has put early childhood education as his top priority. He says it is critical:

We need to make sure our kids can read.. And right now across the state, we know that when kids exit third grade, only about 46% are mastering that content. That's not even half. We have work to do. We have tried over the course of the year to call attention to this and build a plan for how to address that...and we expect we'll see literacy results improve in our state.

Click here to see our KEEL interview with Dr. Brumley.

Dr. Brumley says only 40% of kids in our state come to kindergarten on day one ready to be successful. He says we have to invest in quality care for kids very early on.

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