Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean visited and Ankeny daycare center today to push his plan for early childhood education. The former Vermont Governor toured the daycare center at the Des Moines Are Community College campus, and read a book to a group of five year olds.Dean says many parents don’t have access to the quality daycare provided by the Ankeny center. He’s proposing a ten-year investment in pre-school that will cover all children ages four to five and subsidize daycare for families making less than 40-thousand dollars a year. He says we’re going to spend 110 billion dollars over ten years. Dean says that sounds like a lot, but says we’ve spent 87-billion on Iraq. He says spending the money now will pay off later. Dean says investing in kids will reduce spending on everything from special education to foster care and prisons. He points to studies that show every dollar spent on early childhood development saves the government four to seven dollars later on.He says “he can’t understand all these republicans who say the government ought to be run like a business, then they run it like a profligate uh, family who’s out of control.” He says if you seriously believe children are our future, then he says you should invest some money in them. Dean is campaigning in Iowa with actor-director Rob Reiner, who has also been advocating for children’s programs in California.
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