For its part, the world of early care and education stands to gain in some respects from a closer relationship with the K-12 system, Given the shortage of affordable, high-quality programs or children under 5 and the low compensation for those staff, advocates see potential benefits to having more 1-year-olds, and perhaps even 3-year olds, receive services in publicly funded schooling Proponents also hope that a closer relationship between early years education and the elementary des would lead to enhanced alignment and each sphere's learning from the other, thus resulting in greater continuity and coherence across the preK-3 span.