To the Editor:
Pediatricians know what fosters healthy child development, and as a group we agree: high-quality early education leads to healthy outcomes for children. That is why so many pediatricians are committed personally to the Early Education for All (EEA) Campaign, a coalition of leaders from diverse sectors working to ensure that voluntary high-quality early education is available to every Massachusetts’ three-, four-, and five-year-old.

The human brain develops more rapidly between birth and age five than during any other subsequent period. Medical and educational research has repeatedly demonstrated the important and lasting benefits of high-quality early childhood education on a child's social, emotional, and cognitive readiness for school.

Children, particularly those from high-risk environments, enrolled in quality early education programs fare significantly better in school and have improved long-term outcomes. Children who begin school lagging behind their peers often never catch up, and the success or failure of certain adolescents in school has been correlated with their degree of "readiness" at the time of entry into elementary school.

In Salem, 66% of children under the age of five live in families where all parents are employed; one in eight children lives below the federal poverty line; and half of our third graders do not meet state standards for reading proficiency on the MCAS. Clearly, Salem’s children would benefit from a universal high-quality early education program.

Last month, the Massachusetts House of Representatives made an historic commitment to the health of all young children by unanimously passing An Act Relative to Early Education and Care (H.4755), landmark legislation that creates the Massachusetts Universal Pre-Kindergarten Program.

Senator Frederick Berry has already taken strides towards this goal by serving as the lead Senate co-sponsor for the Early Education for All (EEA) Campaign’s legislation that has been incorporated into H. 4755. We join him in advocating for young children in Salem and across the Commonwealth by urging that this bill pass in the Senate and become law before the end of this legislative session. In the coming years, the Legislature must also appropriate sufficient funding to see this vision to fruition. It’s time that each and every child - in Salem and across the Commonwealth- has access to a high-quality early learning experience, giving them the healthy start that they deserve.

Edward N. Bailey, MD FAAP
Chair, Pediatrics
NSMC, North Shore Children's
Salem