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
for children under 5 and the low compensation
for those staff, advocates see potential benefits to
having more 4-year-olds, and perhaps even 3-yearolds,
receive services in publicly funded schooling.
Proponents also hope that a closer relationship
between early-years education and the elementary
grades would lead to enhanced alignment and each
sphere’s learning from the other,28 thus resulting
in greater continuity and coherence across the
preK–3 span.