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I'm in Nebraska, and the "Free Preschool for All" has begun. There was a news article that outlined a huge, new program that begins NEXT school year already for kids 3 and 4yo for "high-quality preschool" free for low income. Now, we already have this, of course (our district is nationally top-rated for just about everything educational - I feel very fortunate to live here), but this new program is supposedly unlike what is being offered now. It will serve 4,100 kids across all 11 area school districts. That's a lot of kids. And I'd bet the 16/17 school year will bring an offer of partial-parent-pay placement, and the 17/18 school year will be the year that ALL kids start public school at the age of 4, maybe even 3. I shouldn't be, but I'm surprised that it starts this year in August already. It's going to be a daycare game-changer for sure.
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I find this push to put children in school so young to be so sad. I don't believe it is developmentally appropriate, and think it has a lot more to do with accommodating families with two working parents so that they can avoid daycare costs than it has to do with the best interests of the children. I am glad that mine will be grown before school becomes mandatory at such a young age (and it probably will). -
I am in MN and our legislators just voted against universal preschool bill on Tuesday! happyface happyface
"After several hours of testimony on the bill, including an initial hearing last week, the committee voted 11-8 along party lines to reject the bill."
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Yes!!! We have a gal that has several groups on Facebook and she lobbies BIG time for child care providers and putting a stop to some of the ridiculous things legislators have come up with lately.
She really rallies the troops and gets people to e-mail, talk and protest against anything that could hurt the care and education of these young kids. She has spent days at the capital doing what all of us would do if we had the time and/or knowledge to do!
She is fantastic and honestly a lot of the changes in our state that have ben positive for this profession are due to her actions!Comment
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I don't see why not... they are about MN legislative action but seems what happens in one state is not too far off from another.
I am not logged into FB right now and am just getting ready to do lunch so if you hang tight until after I get everyone fed and down for a nap, I'll post the links to her groups.
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I completely agree!
It's in full tilt here for the 4's, no plans for 3's yet without MAJOR overhauls, there is simply no space for them. So far, I haven't lost any clients to it partly because the program already has such a TERRIBLE reputation.
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Well, here in KS with Brownback as governor we won't have to worry about that since we have NO money for education.
But, I do agree it saddens and sickens me to see these kids pushed into learning what they are not ready to learn.Comment
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We already have free 5 day a week full day 4k, but it's not all across the state at all. We are in a very low income county so maybe our school gets extra grants. Other schools in the county only do two full days though. They have started 3k now four half days a week-free. Serves maybe 30 kids.
I'm moving to Mn!Comment
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Are these universal preschools full-day programs?Comment
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We have a couple 4s at the UPK, but it fills quickly and it over by 11ish so we don't really lose kids to it (only have 3 that go this year), because we do transportation.Comment
A win for kids!
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