HillaryCare for Tots

Townhall ^ | May 28, 2007 | Nicole Gelinas

[LIConFem]

More insanity from Hillary “I want to take that money” Clinton.

[Sacajaweau]

Will we soon be signing our kids over at birth?? How about kids just being kids.

My little girl wasn't in the public school for a week when she came home and said that her teacher doesn't make a lot of money.

The next year...Catholic school and a fine education!!

[EQAndyBuzz]

Schools in NJ are funded with property taxes.

If you want to send your kid to pre-K, pay for it. Don’t take it from me.

[LibFreeOrDie]

To be eligible for the matching funds, states would have to...use some standard curricula.

I can just imagine what that would include!

[johnny7]

Totenkampf...

[leda]

Supporters of universal pre-K and other early-childhood programs often point to the growing evidence that young children develop cognitive skills well before school age. Indeed, study after study has shown that by the time they get to kindergarten, kids from families that don’t provide education at home can’t catch up with peers whose parents, say, read a book to them every day from infancy.

while i support early intervention, i think the children might be better served if this support was directed at them and their families before they start school and even after they start school during all the hours they are home. they don't necessarily need to be snatched out of their homes earlier and earlier. many need less time in front of a t.v. and more time with an adult who reads to them and spends time with them.

[sgtbono2002]

Pre-K is like Day Care for women running day care .

Women who work pay the Day care provider then the day care provider gets to unload the kids on the school system via Pre-K. What a racket.

[SoftballMominVA]

I'm confused - I thought HeadStart was the pre-K for the poor. Is Hillary talking about a brand new type of Headstart for all children to attend?

In our county, Headstart is pretty much a joke, is it different for you all in the close in suburbs? What we have here are kids that can either sit at home with an uneducated parent to go to Headstart and stay there with an equally uneducated parent who is being paid a touch over minimum wage.

[Gabz]

Headstart is a joke in this county as well. I’ve read stuff about how by 3rd grade many kids that came from headstart programs are actually behind their classmates in reading level. I have no idea how factual that is, and I don’t remember where I read it, but from what I’ve seen of some 3rd graders, it’s not all that far fetched.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Bump for later. Don’t want to miss this one. ;)

[leda]

she’s proposing a universal pre-k availble
for all 4yr olds.

our headstart sounds similar to yours. :(

[leda]

i just dont see how this program of adding more yrs of
time in school addresses the bigger issue. even school
aged kids spend far more time at home than in school.
i think kids would be better supported focusing on
supporting their familes.

[SoftballMominVA]

What I have gathered from some conversations in the school board meetings I've attended is that the hiring requirements of Headstart are the bottom of the barrel with the idea that the program serves two functions. One to give kids an educationally sound beginning and two to give jobs to the underprivileged. The only person required to have any kind of degree is the person in charge and she is supposed to direct the learning of all the 'teachers' in her employ.

In other words, it is set up to fail from the get-go.

Our county is trying to get control of the program and staff it as part of the school system so that they can require all adults working with kids to have degrees (preferably in early-ed)

[N3WBI3]

My wife and I plan to home school but if that does not work out we sure wont be putting them in the public schools. Ill get a second job before that happens..

[GFritsch]

It should not come as a surprise to many that Hillary, having been a wonderful and nurturning mother, should devote her tremendous talents to causes that are all 'about the children.'

Her large communist heart beats loud and clear when it comes to our little darlings. She wants us to give our children to the state schools at age 4. If America is stupid enough to throw this country down the sewer and elect her president that age will be lowered to 3.

I wonder what little Chelsee is doing now? Hopefully not barfing up booze in the back of a taxi somewhere.

[leda]

the underprivileged providing a sound beginning? seems
like a contradiction to me. do those employed have or
get any training?

i’m required to have degrees and continuous training
and the kids i teach are just a year older. sigh!

[Gabz]

I’m with you about adding more “in school” time — but I’m at a loss as to any suggestions. Things are different now than they were when we were growing up and there was a parent or other family member home until the kids were of school age.

[LantzALot]

If you want to put Federal money into pre-school education, why not a voucher system? Then parents could choose which schools their children attend. Maybe their own church, a Montessori, or a Waldorf school.

[Amelia]

There are almost too many issues in this article to address in one short post.

The article is correct, many students do begin school very far behind their peers - research shows it to be true, and the teachers on the board know this. If there is little conversation at home, if no one reads to the children, if they haven't learned colors or numbers or associated the written word with the spoken word before they begin school, they will certainly be far behind.

Intervention in the home would certainly be preferable, if you could come up with an intervention program that would be effective with teenaged single mothers who are likely uneducated and put little value on education themselves. (Add in the likelihood of substance abuse in the home, and where do you go?)

I know that in some states, such intervention programs exist and serve children and families from birth, but they are voluntary. A young woman of my acquaintance has participated in such a program, but she & her husband are college-educated and would have read to and educated their toddlers at home even without such a program. Do the parents who really need the program, and for whom it is designed, participate? I don't know.