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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Advocates of Pre-K Pushing Obama: “Go To The Library”

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Tuesday, March 12, 2013   

PHOENIX - President Obama highlighted support for early learning in his State of the Union address.

So he should go to the library, according to advocates for using the public library as a key part of the learning process for toddlers to four-year-olds. Many libraries these days are more than musty book stacks and card catalogs and maybe an occasional story-time session. They're becoming fun and inexpensive places for children and parents to write the opening chapters in a lifetime of learning.

Sandy Feinberg, a library director, runs a national program called Family Place Libraries that teaches librarians how to adapt to the needs of pre-kindergarten kids.

"A public space, well stocked with materials, from nine to nine every day, and the weekends, where parents can go, or caregivers, with their young kids," she described. "It's a wonderful idea waiting to happen, isn't it?"

A recent nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center found that 82 percent of those polled "strongly support libraries offering free early literacy programs to help young children prepare for school."

Sandy Feinberg's group has overseen the creation of Family Place Libraries at 400 sites in 24 states. She's pleased at the attention paid to pre-K issues by President Obama, but wouldn't mind some public support, and funding, for libraries.

"But the government can only think, 'Well, we'll put money into schools, therefore we can do universal pre-K.' But it's really at the young level that the parent can be so much more empowered," she said. "So, libraries, I think, we're just a silent kind of institution so many times."

Family Place Libraries locations in Arizona include Flagstaff, Tuba City, Scottsdale, Tempe, Surprise, Apache Junction and Douglas.

The Pew study cited is at bit.ly/VNUUFl.




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