The Gates Foundation and Gov. Christine Gregoire will announce a plan today to pour more than $9 million into the education of Washington's youngest children, signaling a move by the world's biggest philanthropy deep into early education.

Perhaps as important, the initiative marks a new commitment by perhaps the world's most powerful charity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to the arena of early education. Overall, it plans to spend up to $90 million over the next 10 years.

"It's exactly this kind of partnership we have been hoping would unfold," said Sharon Lynn Kagan, head of the Office of Policy and Research at Columbia University's Teachers College. "The presence of the private sector dramatically propels the early childhood field forward."

This article, written by Paul Nyhan, appeared in the July 10th, 2006 publication of The Post-Intelligencer.

Published Tuesday, Jul. 11, 2006