Three cheers for Marty Walz
Cambridge Chronicle, Letter to the editor by Patricia Barbosa, February 23, 2009

Cambridge - Rep. Marty Walz’s recent appointment as House education chairman is a big win for Boston and Cambridge. But it’s also a victory for everyone who cares about high-quality early education for young children and families in Massachusetts.

As the director of Associated Early Care and Education’s program at the Central School — an early education program and recipient of one of the Massachusetts Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) Classroom Quality grants — I’m extremely pleased about Walz’s appointment.

Walz has demonstrated her commitment to young children as a member of the education committee and by voting in favor of the commonwealth’s groundbreaking Universal Pre-Kindergarten legislation last year and by supporting budgets that allow us to support working families, care for infants and toddlers, and improve wages for our dedicated teachers. With new leadership in Washington and here at home, the time for a comprehensive approach to universal early care and education has come.

Patricia Barbosa
Program Director
Associated Early Care and Education
Central School