Posted on 05/31/2002 3:08:47 PM PDT by Truth Addict
'Godsend' from county saves pre-k in Seminole
By Leslie Postal | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted May 31, 2002
SANFORD -- The Seminole County school district will not slash its pre-kindergarten program next school year, thanks to a $500,000 "godsend" from county commissioners.
Without the donation from the Seminole County Commission made this week, enrollment in the program would have been slashed because of new state rules.
The subsidized pre-k program aims to help 4-year-olds from low-income families get ready for school.
New state rules require both parents to work for their child to be eligible. The rule change meant enrollment in Seminole's pre-k classes would have dropped from 380 to fewer than 120.
School officials feared that would mean more children needing help when they started kindergarten.
"These are the children who, if we don't intervene, will never catch up," School Board member Jeanne Morris said.
The commission's donation means the School Board can, as in past years, enroll children who meet poverty guidelines but whose parents don't meet the new work requirements, because most of their fees will be paid for by county money.
Some children who don't quite meet the guidelines -- those from working-poor families -- could also be served with county money, if there is space.
Poor children whose parents meet the new requirements will have their participation paid for by state money.
As in years past, all parents will pay something, even if it's as little as $18 a month, using the program's sliding-scale fee plan.
The pre-k program will be housed at 12 schools across the county.
School Board member Diane Bauer called the donation a "godsend."
County Commissioner Carlton Henley, former Lyman High School principal, helped arrange to have money typically used to build sidewalks spent on pre-k instead.
"For kids to succeed in school, they need to be prepared," Henley said, but too often children from poverty are not. The district's program is an important community asset, he said.
Across Florida, school districts have been struggling with what to do with their pre-k programs, now paid for from the same pot of money that pays for subsidized day care.
A new mandate to provide more subsidized day care -- so that more poor parents can work and stay off welfare -- means officials in charge of distributing the money are balking at paying for pre-k programs.
Pre-k programs typically hire certified teachers, so they cost more than day care.
Some school districts, including Orange, argue their programs do a better job than day
care. They're going to continue their programs on their own, but they'll serve far fewer students next year.
Orange's pre-k program will be cut from 1,600 children to about 600.
Some Seminole School Board members said they wrestled with what to do because they support Florida's efforts to limit dependence on welfare.
"I don't want us to be in conflict" with the state, Chairman Sandy Robinson said.
But other board members argued the school district ended up with the youngsters either way.
"We're either going to help this pre-k program now or we're going to pay for it later in remediation," board member Dede Schaffner said.
In the end, the board voted unanimously this week to continue the program and use the county money to pay for the students the state will not.
Leslie Postal can be reached at lpostal@orlandosentinel.com or 407-772-8046.
Copyright © 2002, Orlando Sentinel
School Districts Try to Save Pre-K
Note that there are no opposing viewpoints in the article at all; all assertions made by the school board members, teachers, etc. are taken at face value. Their claim is that the public pre-k prepares children for school, and "day care" does not. These are four year olds, for crying out loud, and they they claim that "These are the children who, if we don't intervene, will never catch up".
What is really going on here is that the elementary teachers are blaming lack of school preparation at the pre-k level for their failure to teach older kids to read.
What is also not mentioned in the article is that many, if not most private Pre-K schools do a superior job of preparing kids for school than the public ones. I know this is true of the school my wife operates, and hers is not the only one.
What is also not mentioned is that in Seminole county, they utilize pre-k teachers with a CDA certification, which is the same certification required of private pre-k's.
The Seminole County school district will not slash its pre-kindergarten program next school year, thanks to a $500,000 "godsend" from county commissioners. Without the donation from the Seminole County Commission made this week…
I assume this “godsend donation” came from the taxpayers, and not the “county commissioners.
I wish I could be a hero with other people’s money. I’d be one generous MFer too!
Apparently, it came from money that is usually spent on building sidewalks. So, I guess if a few kids get hit by cars because they are riding their bikes or walking on the street instead of the sidewalk, it will still be for a greater good, right? < /sarcasm >
From the previous owner of a child care center and private kindergarten. We had classes for the 4 and 3 and 2 1/2 yr. olds too.
One of my theories about why kids are so angry today is that they know (since they were placed in child care centers) that their parents did not care enough to do exactly what you said above. Makes sense to me.
Even though my wife is the director of our church's pre-school, we agree with you that the proper place for these young children is at home, and wish that all parents would take their parenting responsibilities seriously, and love their kids enough to care for them themselves.
The "educational experts" believe just the opposite, that these kids need to be in an institutional setting where they can learn "social skills" and get used to being in a classroom, to prepare them for school. Every loving parent knows instintively that this is hogwash!
The reason we feel that we need to provide this service, though, is that not all families are willing or able to take that responsibility, and these kids need a safe, nurturing environment to go to. My wife once said to me " There are not any 'normal' families that are my clients". She meant that they all were either single parents (divorced or separated), mixed families (divorced, remarried with children from both spouses), or intact families with other major problems (affairs, drug use, alcholism, etc.). In many of these cases, the kids really are better off at the pre-school than at home. This minority of families is justification for having pre-schools, but many send their kids there without any good cause, and the public schools are trying to convince parents that their kids are better off at their K and pre-K classes than at home.
There will be a ballot initiative in Florida in Nov. to require the public schools to offer free pre-K throughout the state at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. For a school system that is struggling to teach even basic skills to their school aged children to have this added drain on their resources could be catastrophic, yet it will probably pass.
Peace.
Many children are angry today. These are the ones that benefit from Preschool the most. I think the anger comes from parents not understanding parental authority. They buy into the bribe, distract or talk till your blue in the face kind of parenting. The real world does not treat people this way. Children think it should if this is what they experience at home. This kind of parent never say "No" to a child because they do not know how to handle the melt down it creates. Children learn to run right over this kind of parenting and feel frustrated and angry because children need and want limits, even if they do not know it.
The school mostly teaches these children the world does not revolve around them. They have to learn to take turns and be kind. These parents laugh and say I can not get my child to behave and ask how do you get them to behave. Some you teach better parenting skills, most are not interested because it takes work and they do not want to change. They just hope if they keep being fun and kind to their child that somehow it will rub off on to the child. The root of the anger is the child is emotional immature and selfish. The older they get the angrier they get because it breeds the world owes me mentality.
TA's Wife
I am not anti-preschool by any means. My youngest went to a *great* pre-school run by people we'd known for over a decade before we had the youngest child.
My objection is to the state paying for preschool across the board.
I should have been clearer in my initial remarks: one reason I oppose the state paying for preschool is because I see it as a "slippery slope" - first the state pays for it, and then (because of all the good reasons you describe, like the breakdown of so many families) before you know it, preschool now becomes mandatory, and education is compelled at age 3 or 4, let's say, instead of age 5 or 6.
That said, I think we've got to take other approaches. One of the reasons that public education is not popular is that its results are abysmal. Today I noticed that the Merit Scholarship winners from Jacksonville, FL came primarily from private or Catholic high schools (although there were a couple of schools named that I didn't know and which may have been charter schools of some kind.)
It's very difficult. Many public school parents are completely passive; and many public schools are even hostile to parent involvement (unless it happens to coincide with the opinions and programs of the various teachers' unions).
Pre-school seems to be fairly harmless (that is, they're not putting condoms on cucumbers in pre-school, yet, at any rate), and at least gets neglected kids out of bad homes for a few hours a day. But it doesn't make a long term difference. I have read that Headstart gains, for example, virtually evaporate within the first three years of elementary school, after which Headstart kids do no better than any others.
Clearly, it's all about parents. And what can anybody do about them?
first of all, some of us put our kids in pre-k because we do love them and want what is best for them. kids are angry today because they are forced into adult situations faster than they mature. i am in the national guard, and i am going to afghanistan in a few months. my husband works. my kids go to school. their world is being disrupted enough by me going away, why should my husband quit his job, the kids schedules change. all that disruption is worse for them than being in pre-k or school, with their friends, where they socialize and learn to be a part of a community. god forbid i try to get my child used to what society demands from her, and ease her into it slowly. yes, kids today usually do not get enough attention from parents that don't care, but i resent the implication that all parents who put their kids in pre-k are lacking in their parenting skills. my 5th grader reads at a 7th grade level, my 8 year old autistic daughter is in a regular 2nd grade class, and is doing very well. my 4 year old, going into pre-k, by the way, can read, write most letters, count to 50, and work the internet and computer better than most adults. she has been ready for school for a year because of what we have taught her. they are most definitely not suffering in any way, nor are they lacking any attention, love, support or teaching from either parent, despite the fact that we also find time to work and contribute to those taxes you have a problem with, and in addition to the above, i find time to fight to protect the freedom of people on this board to express themselves as they choose, even if they are from a different country. not all parents of pre-k'ers are slackers or bad parents.
by the way, do you have kids?
Bravo.
And thank you for your service to our country.
Five of my own. That's why I owned a child care center -- so I could be home when my children came home.
Of my seven grandchildren, five have the privilege of having their mothers at home. I guess they can count their blessings.
And you can too. For your children, this does offer some regularity to their schedules. God bless you for what you are about to undertake.
PS. Punctuation and capitalization make posts much easier to read. (Just my point of view as a teacher, I know........) But it will be important when you go to fill out applications and edit resumes when you return from active duty.
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