According to the school administration, my niece must wait to learn if she will "make the cut" for pre-k this fall. No...it's not test scores nor any readiness evaluation that's holding them up. It will depend upon how many non-English-speaking children are enrolled for pre-k, as those children will be given the first slots.
I wonder how many children who are not American will be sitting in my niece's chair this fall.
Any thoughts?
That is the EXACT same thing that happened to my daughter. We called (CA) to find out what we needed to do to enroll her in school and we were told that low-income and non english speaking children would be enrolled before they would take her. I was livid. But glad that in the end we didn't enroll her. She would have been completely overlooked while teachers "caught-up" non-English speaking students. Having a look at the schools in our district (Fresno) we decided for us, it was best to homeschool. We'll be starting this year and we're really excited.
While the overall situation is not right, I'm not a fan (putting it mildly) of public schools anyway. She would do much better off being schooled at home or in a private school.
Yep. At three or four, all children who speak English are still learning English. Few people master the language in their lifetimes. Why would the schools deprive her of the opportunity to learn Spanish?
Here's the thing....
There are so many children who speak very little or no English who will be enrolled into public school. The school districts in Texas have ESL programs, but the teachers and administrators feel it isn't enough because these children, who may or may not be American citizens (a lot of them are, but only 1st generation) ~ even by 4th and 5th grade aren't necessarily English language proficient. As a result, some schools are moving to a bilingual atmosphere.
There used to be a pre-k program for special needs children and for low income children. Nowdays it also includes children who do not speak English. In my generation, everyone I know who attended pre-k, and this includes primarily native English speakers, attended a 3-day (half-day) church sponsored program. For socioeconomic reasons, this appears to still be the case today. Middle class and upper class Native English speakers get passed over in favor of those who are needy or less fortunate in some way. It isn't fair, especially since we are talking public education, however, that is the reality.
So, if you niece is middle class or better, and a native English speaker, she will probably not be going to pre-k at a public school (after all, it isn't *for* her that the school does pre-k). You might try suggesting a local religious pre-k program, it's still early enough that you may not have to worry about a waiting list yet.
< /rant> flame away. This was 100% personal experience/opinion.
Not many folks know this but Florida also offers free in-home tutoring to the children of migrant (illegal) workers.
I can't say this is fair. If non-English speakers get free preschool, they should have a regular preschool as well... BUT I see a lot of value in this program and don't think it's so bad. It sounds like it's completely designed to teach the children English before kindergarden, in order to AVOID having to provide bilingual education to them later on. The earlier they learn English, the better. My wife came here from Vietname when she was 2 and wasn't exposed to English until pre-school but picked it right up. The only thing I would say would be to dump that "support" for the first language.
Bilingual education for 3 year olds: a great way to destroy their chances of ever going to college.
Time to take back our country. --and send President Bush your complaints.