According to an arsenal of well-regarded studies, there is a correlation among prekindergarten attendance, fourth-grade reading levels, and, ultimately, incarceration rates and workforce productivity. Katherine Freeman, president and CEO of United Way of Santa Fe County, isn’t just a walking encyclopedia of facts like these; she’s putting plans into action.  Enter the five-year-old Santa Fe Children’s Project, a multilayered educational program that includes home visits to families of firstborn babies and pre-K programs for kids (and their parents) in high-needs neighborhoods- often helping children get a jump on learning English.

Freeman was inspired to create the program after working in hospital-based mental health.  “I’d see people and just wish there had been some way to intervene, because it might have been simple, and now it was impossible,” she says. She realized the answer is at the root: Target kids before problems arise.  Currently, 48 are enrolled in the pre-K programs at Agua Fria Elementary School and another 32 at Kaune Elementary.  At Agua Fria, about half of next year’s kindergarteners will have participated in the project for at least a year, which Freeman predicts could eventually alter the dynamic of the entire grade. “If you have a high enough percentage of curious kids, it changes how everything goes,” she says.  Of the 10-plus years needed to reach that tipping point, she admits, “It takes a long time,” but adds that studies prove such programs pay for themselves in the long run. “This is not a bleeding-heart thing.  It’s practical.  This is Santa Fe’s workforce.” –   http://santafean.com