KEARNEY- Education leaders urged a gathering of more than 500 people to stop "admiring the problem" of Nebraska's early childhood education crisis and instead find solutions to an ongoing issue that's only worsening in the state. The group of school districts, organizations and government agencies convened at the annual Thriving Children, Families and Communities Conference in Kearney to explore the state's early childhood education system.

Like other states, Nebraska's system has been lacking funds, staff and widespread providers for years. Nine out of 10 Nebraska counties do not have enough early childhood education providers, according to the Buffett Early Childhood Institute, the conference's facilitator. Ten counties have no providers at all.

Gov. Jim Pillen spoke at the conference, saying community members need to talk about these problems more often in order to start creating solutions. "If we don't get our neighbors to reach out and have impacts in our communities, by the time they get to it, it will be way too late," he said. "We have to start educating our kids as early as possible. We have to figure out how to make that process more standard, especially for the kids growing up in poverty."

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