I've had lots of requests to put in writing what I talked about on the show today regarding Universal Preschool, or Rob Reiner's Preschool-for-All Initiative here in California, which if passes will more than likely come to your state. Please pass this on.
Preschool-for-All Initiative, California Prop 82
What's it about?Sponsor: Actor Rob Reiner, Chair of First 5 Commission
-Will be on the June 2006 California Primary ballot
-Will establish "free" voluntary, half-day state/government-run preschools for all 4-year-olds regardless of want or need.
-Will be funded by taxing the top 1.7% of income earners in California, increasing taxes to 11% on individuals with taxable income of $400,000 / couples of $800,000 or more.
-Cost: $2.3 billion a year
-$8,000 per child which is more than some kindergarten through Grade12 schools pay for a full day.
-Requires all pre-school teachers to have a Bachelor’s Degree
-Claims kids who go to preschool will do better in kindergarten and elementary school, graduate from high school, attend college, get better jobs with higher salaries and become happy consumers who will be less likely to do drugs and commit crimes than those who don't go to preschool.
-Based on a RAND Corporation study (funded by the pro-universal-preschool Packard Foundation) claims for every $1 spent on preschool, society will get back $2.62 in long-term benefits such as better student performance and lower crime.
Reiner Initiative is Facing Problems:
-Senate leader Don Perata (D) withdrew his support for Proposition 82 saying it costs too much to provide state paid preschool to all 4-year-olds
-The LA Times called into question the campaign’s use of money
-Lawmakers have called for audits and investigations of spending by the First 5 California Commission which spent $23 million on television ads promoting preschool while Prop. 82 was qualifying for the ballot.
-State law prohibits the use of public funds for campaign activities
-Reiner has taken leave as chairman of the First 5 Commission after the the commission's use of public money was questioned.
Stanford University Findings:-Analysis utilized data from 14,162 kindergartners and their parents and teachers.
-Children from poor families had gains in cognitive skills when attending preschools. Less evidence for youngsters from middle-class homes benefiting.
-Little is known about possible impacts from the duration (the age at which children enter preschool) or the intensity (hours enrolled each week) of attendance.
-Found that attending a preschool center prior to kindergarten raises early language, pre-reading skills and math skills by about 10 percent. It more than doubles for English-proficient Hispanic children compared with White children.
-Did not observe statistically significant gains in language and pre-reading skills for other children from lower-income families compared with their counterparts who remain at home with a parent.
Did find that attendance in preschool centers, even for short periods of time each week, hinders the rate at which young children develop social skills and display the motivation to engage classroom tasks.
University of California-In January, UC Santa Barbara researchers found that whatever student achievement gains can be attributed to preschool attendance largely evaporates after a few years in elementary school.
UC Berkeley-Professor Bruce Fuller issued a study last year that examined research on teacher education and preschool. Found that studies claiming to show a connection between teachers holding bachelor's degrees and better student performance were statistically and methodologically flawed.
Georgetown University-Professor William Gormley admits a universal pre-K program may or may not be the best path to school readiness. There is inconsistent evidence as to whether universal preschool helps improve the short-term performance of middle and upper-income children.
Another University of California-Study showed that even brief attendance in preschool hinders emotional development and motivation to learn. This confirms other studies showing increased behavior problems caused by out of home care.
Important Quotes:Dr. Karen Effrem, pediatrician, and board member of the ICSPP (International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology): "There is a significant element of indoctrination in these programs as evidenced
by the Head Start national standards and the National Association for the
Education of Young Children standards that bring up issues of gender
identity, homosexuality, environmentalism, and social activism with three and
four year olds. Preschool does not raise test scores. Despite a
quadrupling of the number of four year olds attending preschool nationally
over the past 40 years, test scores in reading, math, and science have
remained stagnant over the same period.”
John Bruer, author of “The Myth of the First Three Years”, President of the James S. McDonnel Foundation: "Brain science has nothing to say about what happens to babies' brains when parents read to them. There's nothing wrong with reading, but in other cultures they're not as concerned with it as we are. We have to be careful in our attempts to use biology to justify our values. Human children thrive under a great variety of social and cultural conditions. Yes, kids should be ready to read when they start school. But starting at age 7 is not a biological constraint."
"Preschool for all is a seductive proposition, but the reality is that the purported benefits would likely be much less than what Rob Reiner and his cohorts are promising. And with experts arguing that Reiner’s cost estimate of $2 billion is way too low, universal preschool looks to be a very expensive bad idea."
-Lance T. Izumi, director of education studies and senior fellow in California studies at the Pacific Research Institute
"The schools cannot allow parents to influence the kind of values-education their children receive in school; that is what is wrong with those who say there is a universal system of values. Our (humanistic) goals are incompatible with theirs. We must change their values.“
-Paul Haubner, specialist for the N.E.A.
Little kids deserve a secure place to spend their days where they are encouraged to learn - especially in the first 5 years of life when their brains are growing rapidly. Have we forgotten that home is still a child's best "preschool" for the vast majority of American children?
Hear the show (See 3/13/05)4Comment
