LINCOLN — University of Nebraska officials on Monday announced a “generous gift” from Omaha philanthropist Susie Buffett that will be used to help establish a $100 million, multi-campus institute on early childhood education.
The Buffett gift also will be used to establish up to three new Educare early childhood centers at locations throughout the state. One could be located in Lincoln, officials said. The other potential sites have not yet been identified.
NU President J.B. Milliken said the Buffett Early Childhood Institute will provide cutting-edge research, teacher training and policy development that could transform early childhood education in the United States.
“The need for this institute has never been more clear — and the potential to transform the lives of children has never been greater,” he said. “Too many children today are affected by an achievement gap that impacts their ability to succeed in school and later in life. This gap often is rooted in opportunities lost during the early years.”
University officials declined to reveal the amount of Buffett’s gift, at her request.
They said the gift would be “more than matched” by other funds from the university, private and federal sources to leverage an investment greater than a $100 million endowment.
About a dozen Educare schools already exist in the United States, including two in Omaha, at Kellom Elementary and Indian Hill Elementary. Six more schools are planned for construction across the country in 2011, not including the new Nebraska schools.
The centers are specially designed early learning schools that each serve from 140 to 200 infants, toddlers and preschoolers who are growing up in families that live in poverty.
Buffett, who is the chairwoman of the Sherwood Foundation, said her commitment to early childhood education results from her belief that too many children enter kindergarten already behind — and struggle to keep up for the rest of their lives.
Early childhood development and education is one of six academic priorities for the Campaign Nebraska, a comprehensive campaign announced in 2009 to raise $1.2 billion by the University of Nebraska Foundation. Buffett’s gift will not be used to build university facilities. In addition to the new Educare schools, it will be used to recruit faculty, support research, provide scholarships for early childhood educators; and hire an executive director for the institute, among other purposes.
Buffett and NU leaders stressed that the new institute would draw upon work now ongoing on all four University of Nebraska campuses, from the colleges of education at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the University of Nebraska at Kearney, to the Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, to the Munroe-Meyer Institute and the College of Public Health at the NU Medical Center.
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