News Releases
Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - June 6, 2000
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

Mona Locke, Melinda Gates announce formation of Washington Early Learning Foundation, $10 million gift from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

OLYMPIA & SPOKANE - Mona Lee Locke and Melinda Gates, co-chairs of the Governor's Commission on Early Learning, today announced the formation of the Washington Early Learning Foundation at kickoff events at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle and the Children's Museum in Spokane. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will contribute a $10 million gift to support the Washington Early Learning Foundation.

The Washington Early Learning Foundation will work with parents and caregivers to help every child in Washington go to school eager to learn and ready to succeed. The focus of the foundation will be on improving the quality of child care, increasing the accessibility and quality of parent education, and providing resources and information on brain development ofchildren from birth to age five to parents and caregivers. Established by the Commission on Early Learning, the foundation will be funded by gifts from individuals, corporations, public charities and private foundations.

"We created the Washington Early Learning Foundation to continue the Commission's work of educating parents and caregivers about the importance of the critical first years of life," said Gates. "We will make information about early childhood development available to anyone in our state who wants it."

Locke and Gates also unveiled a public engagement campaign, including television and magazine ads and a Web site-focused on educating the public about the importance of learning during the first five years of life. The television and magazine ads will begin appearing in July; the campaign Web site, www.earlylearningofwa.com, is currently up and running. Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, a premier sponsor of the campaign, is donating $150,000 and use of its toll-free Resource Line (877-526-2500 or 206-526-2500) for statewide distribution of information.

As part of the campaign, approximately 13,000 information kits will be mailed to individuals who have direct contact with children, parents or expecting parents, including doctors, licensed child care providers, hospitals and birthing centers, and midwives. Ten thousand kits will also be mailed to family-friendly businesses throughout Washington. All of the information kits will be mailed in late June and early July.

"We want parents, grandparents, caregivers - anyone who is close to young children -to know that all children are born learning," said Locke. "To spread the word, we'll soon begin a public engagement campaign - call to action for people who have or care for young children."

Locke and Gates were joined by Rob Reiner, founder of I Am Your Child, a national public awareness and engagement campaign established to educate parents, caregivers, and professionals about the importance of the prenatal period through age five. I Am Your Child is partnering with the Commission to distribute materials about early learning to parents, caregivers, doctors and others.

"The critical development that occurs during the first years of a child's life will impact the way he learns, thinks, and behaves for the rest of his life," Reiner said. "We are very pleased to be working with the Governor's Commission to spread the word about this important information."

Reiner first worked with the Governor's Commission when he addressed one of its first meetings about his work in California and his national efforts to raise awareness about the importance of early learning.

Since then, the Commission has held numerous public meetings in an attempt to determine what information parents and caregivers already had about early learning and what additional information they needed. Through the public meetings, parent forums and surveys, the Commission learned that Washington residents are fairly knowledgeable about early learning, but that they want and need to know more.

The Commission, which is composed of parents, educators, pediatricians, representatives of large and small businesses, state legislators, academicians, and licensed child care providers, recently completed its final report to Gov. Gary Locke, entitled "Early Learning: Birth to Age Five." In it, the Commission describes what it learned about early development and learning in young children, explains the importance of quality child care and parent education, and makes recommendations to the governor for future action.

Among the Commission's recommendations were:

- Change the assumption that education begins with kindergarten
- Demonstrate a policy commitment to early learning
- Examine and reform the financing structure for child care and early learning

The First Lady will continue to spread the word with kickoff events in Yakima, the Tri-Cities, Vancouver and Bellingham later this week.

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