Universal Parent Education
My idea is to make parent education available for every person in Oregon who becomes a parent. Being a parent is one of the most difficult and important jobs anyone will ever undertake however, few come prepared with the knowledge and skill to do it well. For most, their role models were their own parents; sometimes good sometimes not so good. The first few years are the most important in the develpment of a child, however, it is also the time of lest training. It has long been recognized that good parenting skills can be taught. If parents are categorized "at risk" there are many agencies and resources to help them. Unfortunately, this is not so for the "universal" population. It has been proven that every dollar spent in the early years on early childhood education as much as $17 can be saved in future spending in penal and rehabilitation concerns. Oregon has many examples of successful programs that educate and assist parents of young children (Birth to Three in Eugene, Together For Children in Central Oregon, Family Focus in Medford, Parents As Teachers organizations, etc.) so nothing new would need to be invented. A million dollars would go a long way in extending the work that is already being done and in developing other opportunities for the universal population.
anonymous
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m8and8t
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An excellent idea that would certainly improve society. But the only jobs it would generate would be for teachers of such programs, which would inevitably have to be short and simple so that every new parent could "pass" it.
So how about some background info on number of births per year in Oregon and an estimate of how many instructors it would take to run this for two parents for each birth each year? At a salary of an entry level public education teacher what would this cost per year? (See PPS website budget book for salary info.) Extra credit: Estimate the percentage of parents which would actually take such a class if it was not legally mandated. Use that guess to revise the estimated number of jobs created and cost of the program.
