ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

Has anyone thought about what will happen to the lives of our youngest (infants/toddlers) children when quality programs have to close because of low Pre-Kindergarten enrollment? My school is a non-profit, faith-based program and rely on preschool and pre-kindergarten enrollment to subsidize our infant and toddler classes. Adding more infant and toddler classes won't help because of the small group size and low teacher/child ratios. If we lose our pre-kindergarten classes, we will probably have to close the school. I know that we aren't alone and I wonder what parents will do if they can't find quality infant/toddler care? Unfortunantly, in the state of Texas the minimum standard for teacher/child ratios for infants (2/10) and toddlers (range from 1/9 to 1/13) are not developmentally appropriate. If programs such as mine are forced to close down, then the major alternative for parents is to find a daycare center that operates with the minimum standard teacher/child ratios. What a sad shame this will be for the very age we proport is the most important time in a child's development. Isn't this a tad bit hypocritical? In some states there seems to be more of a collaborative effort among the public and private school sectors than in Texas, where there is a lot of "talk" but not much action.

We just moved to Texas from California and were thrilled that there was a public Pre-K program. The teachers are credentialed (as compared to some preschools where teachers are only required to have taken a few early childhood classes) and the curriculum has nicely prepared our daughter for public school Kindergarten. The children were introduced to letters, sounds and numbers and the majority of the 3-hour day was spent on hands-on, developmental activities. The children were not expected to have mastered any of the skills taught, it was just for exposure. Our daughter attended school 5 days a week for 3 hours which has been an excellent transition into full day Kindergarten. The tuition was extremely reasonable for the quality of education received and our state offers an income-based, all day Pre-K program as well. I have taught Kindergarten for the past 8 years and am taking a break to be home with my children. As an educator and parent, I was extremely pleased with our state's Pre-K program and am highly recommending it to anyone who asks.

I am horrified that the state is testing children on letter and sound recognition skills to determine if their Pre-K program prepared them for kindergarten. I have been in this field for 40 years. It took at least 35 of them to convince parents that those skills are not preparing children to think, create or problem solve. If children do not have these thinking skills, however, knowing the names of letters will not make them "ready" for kindergarten.
My 4 year old enrollment has steadily dropped since the state began offering Pre-K. Parents are encouraged to send their children to the public schools when they apply for eligibility.

3 hr. VPK program did not touch the socio-economic class that it was hoping to assist. These three hour only children are from households where mom stays home and never would have sent their 4 year old to school unless this credit was in place. The other children that attend (low income areas) drop out of the program due to lack of transportation or support leaving the schools with no income in those projected spaces. This program needs to increase to at least six hours per day, even yet, 8 hours per day before it will be effective. The test results for Florida from the 2005 classes is not very promising; with the lowest grades being earned by many "Pulbic school based programs". If you failed that year, the information was not given to you in time to avoid failure in your program for the second year, so technically you should not be allowed to run a third year program. I have had six VPK classrooms in the past two years; due to increase in schools providing this service, and less children looking for placements, I'm cutting back to four classrooms. I hope Tallahassee decides to interview people in my position to hear the real pros and cons of this program. I've been in the industry for 41 years and have seen it all.

In the state of Wisconsin the funding for 4 year old kindergarten comes through the public schools. The funding is for a 2 1/2 hour program. 62% of the school districts are offering 4K. Of those offering 4K, 19% are partnering with child care and head start agencies to provide 4K.

Our agency is partnering with 2 different school districts to provide a quality 4K for families. We can offer full day services for families who need more than a 2 1/2 hour program. Children are not bussed from one program to another. We receive reimbursement from the school districts that covers all of our costs. Sharing resources with the school districts has been great for our program, the school districts and the families we serve.

We also operate child care programs in school districts who are not partnering with head start and child care. We have seen a significant reduction in our enrollments and it has impacted us detrimentally.