Why is it easier to find out about coffee makers than preschools?

Coffee makers are important enough. So are cell phones, lawn mowers, cars, cereals and laundry soap. All of those things are important enough in our lives that we use Consumer Reports and other consumer ratings services to guide our shopping. We demand the best.

Well, how about our kids? Shouldn't there be a Consumer Reports for our kids' early education?

Many Minnesota kids are not learning enough from age zero to 5. About half of them are not being fully prepared for kindergarten, and many of them never catch up.

For too long, we have focused our child care system predominantly on keeping kids safe, healthy and nurtured. We have underemphasized early learning.

That's a problem, because neuroscience researchers have found that up to 90 percent of a child's brain develops between birth and age 5. Therefore, it is critically important for young children to be in the best early learning environment possible.

But many of us are flying blind. It's difficult for parents to identify which places are successfully preparing kids for school. I can walk into a child care program and see for myself whether it looks safe, clean, healthy and loving. But I am not equipped to recognize whether they are doing everything possible to prepare kids for school.

And I'm not alone. Most parents we surveyed told us they would find ratings focused on the quality of early learning helpful.

Enter the "Parent Aware" ratings. Just as Consumer Reports ratings guide those shopping for household products, the Parent Aware ratings are a shopping tool to help parents find the best places for their young children to learn.

Parent Aware rates child care and early learning providers on a one- to four-star scale, with four stars indicating a setting that is achieving most to all of the best practices for preparing children for school. The rating system is voluntary for providers, so even a one-star program is demonstrating a commitment to quality by participating in the rating process.

So, what can parents do? They can use the ratings to search for strong programs, tell their friends about the ratings, watch for the signs and stickers proudly displayed by four-star providers, and ask providers about their ratings when they are shopping.

Right now, Parent Aware ratings are available for providers in Minneapolis, St. Paul, the Wayzata School District area, Blue Earth County and Nicollet County. But we hope the Parent Aware ratings will soon be available to many more parents in all parts of Minnesota.

The ratings are issued by the Minnesota Department of Human Services, with the support of the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation, the Minnesota Department of Education, the University of Minnesota's Center for Early Education and Development, the Minnesota Child Care Resource and Referral Network, Resources for Child Caring and Child Care Resource and Referral.

With most brain development happening in those first five years of life, early learning is obviously an urgent need. And with half of Minnesota kids unprepared for kindergarten, we must do better. A good start would be to make more parents aware of Parent Aware.

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Duane Benson leads the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation, a sponsor of the Parent Aware ratings system. Benson served in the Minnesota Senate from 1980 to 1994 and was the Senate minority leader during part of that time.