Sonia Gironda, executive director of Smart Start of Henderson County, says, that “dramatically reducing funds to Smart Start and More at Four will be reversing what North Carolina has spent the last 18 years building — a quality early care and education system that prepares children for kindergarten and life.”
Posted inEducation, Environment, Politics & Government, Special Reports
Photo Essay: At Alice’s Playground Center in Henderson County, preschoolers benefit from building blocks of Smart Start early education initiatives
The North Carolina House and Senate are considering cutting funds and making major changes to the state’s Smart Start and More at Four early education programs, which could impact thousands of children in Western North Carolina.
Posted inEducation, Environment, Politics & Government, Special Reports
WNC child advocate Dr. Olson Huff says proposed Smart Start cuts and changes will ‘destroy years of early childhood progress’
In his statement, Dr. Olson Huff says a recent Duke University study showed that all North Carolina third-graders have higher standardized reading and math scores and lower special education placement rates in counties that received more funding for Smart Start when those children were younger.
Posted inSpecial Reports
Press release: People with disabilities or 60 or older again can receive help through Operation Fan/Heat Relief
Operation Fan/Heat Relief, a summer fan distribution program that operates each year throughout North Carolina, is now under way. This summer marks the 25th anniversary of the program that began in 1986 and is managed by the Division of Aging and Adult Services (DAAS) in the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
Posted inHealth, Politics & Government
Justice for victims of now-abolished N.C. sterilization program is subject of upcoming meetings
From 1929 until 1974, an estimated 7,600 North Carolinians, women and men, many of whom were poor, undereducated, institutionalized, sick or disabled, were sterilized by choice, force or coercion under the authorization of the North Carolina Eugenics Board program, according to the North Carolina Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation.