The National Preschool Debate Intensifies

Educators rave about the benefits of early childhood schooling. So, why don't we support it more?

By Michael Lester

Nationwide, almost two-thirds (64 percent) of children attend preschool center in the year prior to kindergarten, typically at age four. On any given day, more than five million American youngsters attend some prekindergarten program. And a preschool day is not just advanced babysitting for busy parents. Kids also practice many key components of the school day, including the importance of routine. That’s key for early learners.

“They understand carpet time, clean-up procedures, how to share crayons, or even getting their pants on and off without the teacher’s help; that’s big,” says Steve Malton, kindergarten and first-grade teacher at Parkmead Elementary School, in Walnut Creek, California. “Little kids have only a certain amount of what’s called active working memory. If a large portion of their brain is figuring out what they’re going to do next, there’s less room there to spend on learning.” Result: Preschool has a huge impact on their ability to keep up in class.

So, what’s not to love about preschool? Plenty, say critics. “Young children are better off at home,” says Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association. “We are in danger of overinstitutionalizing them. A child will develop naturally if the parents give the child what he or she needs most in the formative years – plenty of love and attention. In this way, the brain can develop freely.”

As soon as the subject of schooling before K-12 comes up, another concept quickly follows: testing. That gives some parents the jitters. “The only way for school programs, including preschool programs, to show accountability of public funding for education is through testing,” says Diane Flynn Keith, founder of Universal Preschool. “The only way to prepare children for standardized testing is to teach a standardized curriculum. Standardized preschool curriculum includes reading, writing, math, science, and social sciences at a time when children are developmentally vulnerable and may be irreparably harmed by such a strategy.”

That’s part of a broader test-them-sooner move across many grades. One pushdown from No Child Left Behind, for instance, is that high-stakes testing now begins as early as the second grade. “It’s not the same kindergarten we went to,” says Don Owens, director of public affairs for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYP). “It’s not the same kindergarten it was ten years ago. Kindergarten used to be preparation for school, but now it is school. That’s why school districts and boards of education are paying attention to what happens before the kids arrive at school.”

The result is a desperate tug-of-war between prekindergarten advocates and critics, with the under-six set placed squarely in the middle. In 2006, for instance, the Massachusetts legislature passed, by unanimous vote, an increase in state-funded high-quality prekindergarten programs. Governor Mitt Romney promptly vetoed the bill, calling preschool an “expensive new entitlement.”

On the national stage, Oklahoma is the only state to offer publicly funded preschool education to virtually all children (about 90 percent) at age four. But twelve states – Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming – provide no preschool services at all. “There is not enough support for preschool,” explains David Kass, executive director of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids. “It’s very expensive, and most parents cannot afford it.” The three costliest states for private preschool are Massachusetts (where preschool runs an average of $9,628 per year), New Jersey ($8,985), and Minnesota ($8,832). In Rhode Island, the average yearly tab for preschool represents 45 percent of the median single-parent-family income. In California, part-time private preschool and child-care programs cost families on average $4,022 statewide. By comparison, the average full-time tuition at a California State University campus was $3,164. “America is forcing its parents to decide between paying for early education for their kids and saving for their college education,” says the NAEYP’s Don Owens (abridged from http://www.edutopia.org/preschool).

After Reading Activities

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 961