"While we need to address education at every level from preschool to college, what we do for our children during their first years is tremendously important," Carney said, noting research showing "brain development during the first 1,000 days of a child's life will go a long way in determining that child's ability to read, communicate, learn and think."
With 5- and 6-year-olds lining the front row, Carney released his plan at St. Michael's School and Nursery, a nationally accredited preschool on North Walnut Street.
• Increasing state subsidies that pay for care of low-income children, perhaps tying how much providers receive to their performance in the Delaware Stars for Early Success program, a five-star quality rating system.
• Requiring providers -- now mandated to seek licenses yearly -- to be certified annually based on nationally accepted standards to be eligible for subsidies.
• Providing more education for workers, partly by expanding Teacher Education and Compensation Helps funding. TEACH offers scholarships for those working in licensed centers who want to earn associate degrees.
• Creating an Early Childhood Education Cabinet Council to study national best practices.
• Sharing information on children's academic progress from early childhood through college, work already under way by the state's P-20 Council.
Such efforts will improve achievement in K-12 schools, Carney said. "We will see the results of what we have accomplished in higher test scores in the early grades."
State Treasurer Jack Markell, Carney's Democratic primary opponent, plans to release a comprehensive education plan in a few weeks.
"Early childhood education needs to be a priority, and it needs to be an important part of a comprehensive education plan, not a detail handled on its own," Markell said.
Carney said he, too, will release a broader education plan in the coming weeks.
Only 5 percent of Delaware children younger than 5 -- about 2,760 children -- are enrolled in nationally accredited preschool programs, according to the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Some Delaware initiatives, such as the Vision 2015 reform plan, seek greater state investment in preschool education.
Modeled after the federal Head Start program, Delaware's Early Childhood Assistance Program began in 1994 to expand access to 4-year-olds through Head Start programs, public schools and private agencies. At least 90 percent of the children must have family incomes below the federal poverty line, and all must have disabilities or risk factors.
In the 2005-06 school year, 843 children enrolled at a state cost of $5.3 million -- or $6,261 per child, the sixth-highest per-child amount in the country, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University.
For parents such as Bob Rossi, the quality of a program is as important as access to it.
The New Castle father has two children -- 5-year-old Kirsten and 3-year-old Charlie -- enrolled at St. Michael's, where they are exposed to Spanish lessons and learn about different cultures, he said. "The sooner you introduce them to those things, [the better you promote] appreciation for others."
St. Michael's Executive Director Helen Riley appreciated Carney's desire to focus on children's first 1,000 days, saying talk often centers on kindergarten or pre-kindergarten.
"We aren't really addressing 0 to 3," she said. "That's where families have a lot of anxiety."
Riley supports Carney's proposal to increase the state subsidy: 70 percent of St. Michael's 170 children receive subsidies or private tuition assistance.
Current state funding -- which averages $22 a day -- is about half of the school's actual cost to educate each child, forcing continual fundraising, Riley said. "The increases are minimal, and they haven't kept pace with the actual costs."
Early education's problems are cyclical: low funding makes paying educators well difficult; low pay makes attracting educated teachers who could earn more working in elementary school difficult; raising tuition makes it difficult for parents -- especially middle-income families that don't qualify for state aid -- to afford care.