Actress Jennifer Garner was in Burlington, Vermont today to visit an early learning center and promote investment in early childhood education programs.
Garner is a board member of Save the Children and travels the country as an “Artist Ambassador” advocating for expansion of early childhood education programs.
She toured Robin’s Nest Children’s Center, a preschool and early learning center in Burlington’s North End. Surrounded by children from the center, Garner, who voiced the Mama Llama character in the Llama Llama animated series, sat and read from a Llama Llama book: “Do you guys ever watch the tv show “Llama Llama”?”
Kids: “I do!”
Garner: “It’s great right? Don’t you love Mama Llama?”
Kid: “I love it.”
Garner reads: “Llama Llama misses mama. Oh, I know that feeling. I woke up missing my mama today. Llama Llama warm in bed. Wakey wakey sleepyhead!”
Garner told Vermont Governor Phil Scott, House Speaker Mitzi Johnson and Senate President Tim Ashe that the state is ahead of the curve when it comes to investing in early learning. “I’ve seen kids all over this country in my work with Save the Children who are going into kindergarten and have never held a book. Because kids growing up in poor America there’s one book for every 13 children. If you’re growing up poor in America then by the time you are 4 years old you are 18 months behind. This is because you don’t have access to early childhood education like what’s happening here at Robin’s Nest. It’s amazing to see this bipartisan support here in Vermont to make places like Robin’s Nest more accessible to moms who couldn’t otherwise afford it. Your opportunity is birth to five, 90 percent of your brain growth, and you have got to have kids in an environment to learn at that time and that’s what’s happening here.”
Governor Scott says investing in early education is also an investment in the state’s economic future. “We know we still have more work to do to make child care more affordable. But if we can lead regionally and nationally in affordable and accessible child care that is high quality and feeds into our already strong K-through-12 system we will be ahead of the curve in attracting families to Vermont.”
Save the Children Action Network CEO Mark Shriver says supporting early childhood education is the most important investment a state government can make. “Raising the visibility of this issue is a hard thing to do because people you know politicians talk about the importance of early childhood education, they talk about the importance of kids and then they oftentimes don’t put their money where their mouth is. So it’s great to have somebody who is raising the visibility and then you know working with Save the Children and Let’s Grow Kids here in Vermont. So Vermont’s leading the way. There are a couple other states that are doing well but you know this is a national issue and we want to use Vermont as an example.”
Children at Robin’s Nest come from 40 families and range in age from 6 weeks to kindergarten.
