Universal Preschool News
Confused about the benefits or harm of Universal Preschool?
Is it a silver bullet for education reform or a waste of money?
Watch this 10-minute documentary...
In this section, you'll find editorials, legislation, public policy and trends on issues relating to preschool, pre-kindergarten, childcare and the push toward universal preschool education. Particularly of note are articles concerning the states claim of a compelling interest in compulsory preschool education. Visit often for the latest preschool news.
Why Universal Pre-K Is a Step Backwards
Obama's call for universal preschool access, one of the few concrete proposals in an otherwise bland State of the Union Address, was the culmination of an idea inspired by the success of programs like the Perry Preschool Program.
There has been some research to suggest that children who attend preschool regularly go on to lead more successful lives than those who don't, even when socioeconomic factors are accounted for. In response to the President's State of the Union speech, the WSJ took a look at Oklahoma, one of the first states to roll out state-funded preschools, to see how their program is actually faring.
March 10, 2013
[More Results from blogs.the-american-interest.com]
Companies fail to provide mandatory child care
More than a fifth of the nation's biggest corporations were found to have neglected to provide some form of day care to its employees' infants as required by law, a government report said Sunday.
According to a report by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 22 of the top 100 corporations failed to provide either day care facilities or an allowance to cover least half the total cost of child care.
September 25, 2011
[More Results from koreaherald.com]
Who should prepare kids for kindergarten?
Georgia already offers universal pre-kindergarten for 4-year-olds and there has been talk about expanding the program to 3-year-olds.
Some argue the state shouldn't teach more children until it can provide quality education to its k-12 students. They question why the state should get involved when part of the problem comes from poor parenting.
March 31, 2008
[More Results from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
Tangle of Funds Perplexes Preschool Providers
Funding for California preschool programs is dizzyingly complex, with money flowing from numerous state grants, each with their own restrictions, requirements and a mountain of paperwork.
Preschool providers find it logistically difficult to weave different funds together, a recognized way to create income-integrated preschools like Poway Unified's, which delivers services to kids across the economic spectrum.
March 28, 2008
[More Results from Voice of San Diego (CA)]
Edwards' education plan leaves out full-day kindergarten
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards wants universal preschool for the nation's 4-year-olds,...
...but the education plan he debuted last week does not address full-day kindergarten, the issue that has dominated education debate in Nevada.
September 25, 2007
[More Results from Reno Gazette-Journal]
The Evidence Shows 'Success' Fades
WASHINGTON -- The senator who wrote "It Takes a Village" apparently believes it takes the federal government to decide how American families prepare their 4-year-olds for kindergarten.
Evaluations of early education interventions have shown that while participating students may yield gains in the short-run, these benefits typically disappear over time. Other academic studies, such as a 2005 study published by Stanford and University of California researchers, have reported that students who attend preschool may be more likely to exhibit negative social behaviors.
June 24, 2007
[More Results from The Free Lance-Star (VA)]
Let children be children | Is your 5-year-old stressed out because so much is expected?
We've just finished test time again in the schools of California. The mad frenzy of testing infects everyone from second grade through high school.
For 30 years as a teacher of primary kids, I have operated on the Any Fool Can See principle. And any fool can see that the spread between what is developmentally appropriate for 7- and 8-year-old children and what is demanded of them on these tests is widening. A lot of what used to be in the first-grade curriculum is now taught in kindergarten. Is your 5-year-old stressed out? Perhaps this is why.
June 13, 2007
[More Results from San Francisco Chronicle (CA)]
Pre-K bill headed to Douglas' desk
MONTPELIER -- Lawmakers reached a deal on the rules around state funding of early childhood education - that pitted those who want universal coverage against those who worry about increasing the cost to the education fund and the future of private nursery
In the end, they split the difference. School districts will get state assistance in providing education to half of their 3- and 4-year-olds if they choose to do so. But if they provide those services to more than that number, local taxpayers will have to put up the additional money.
May 25, 2007
[More Results from Rutland Herald (VT)]
Plug of war
Conversations on the ins and outs of pacifiers can get contentious The pacifier. Despite its name, the small plastic plug seems to rile up controversy rather than calm it.
Aside from breast-feeding and circumcision, few other topics can get parents, grandparents, pediatricians and child experts so stirred up that a timeout may be in order.
May 19, 2007
[More Results from The Union Tribune (CA)]
Lawmakers quietly considering universal preschool
After California's voters last June defeated a $2.3 billion universal preschool initiative, Proposition 82, the issue of early education seemed dead. But reports of its demise have proved premature.
The debate over how much to spend on pre-K and for which kids is now in the hands of the state politicians, and the issue will resurface this week when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger releases his revised 2008 budget.
May 7, 2007
[More Results from San Jose Mercury News (CA)]
Hispanic Children Gain an Academic Edge When Their Education Starts Early
The National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics released a national report, Para Nuestros Ninos: Expanding and Improving Early Education for Hispanics.
The Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics, along with the California Community Foundation and Los Angeles Universal Preschool, will address educators and community leaders at a briefing this morning to reveal key findings and recommendations.
March 19, 2007
[More Results from Sys-Con Media]
Preschool, one grant at a time
HOW CAN the state bring about universal preschool? Since its wallet is bare, Massachusetts has to start small and build.
So the state is giving out $4.6 million in grants to early education and care programs that serve low-income children and asking them to experiment with ways to improve their programs.
March 17, 2007
[More Results from Rutland Herald (MA)]
Ratings and pilots are advised for state preschool programs
A rating system for pre-K programs and pilot preschools in six communities were two recommendations made to the governor Wednesday by a group looking into kindergarten for all 4-year-olds in the state.
The Start Strong Council, a group of 25 legislators, business leaders, educators and early childhood advocates, was created by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine. One of the themes of his campaign last year was making preschool available to all children in Virginia.
December 7, 2006
[More Results from The Virginian-Pilot]
Proposition 82 / Preschool supporters aren't giving up on their quest
Preschool advocates plan to continue fighting to increase quality and expand access to preschool, they said Wednesday, despite the resounding defeat of Proposition 82.
In 13 counties, including San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Los Angeles, advocates already are implementing publicly funded preschool, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed $100 million in next year's budget to increase preschool opportunities for 4-year-olds from low-income families. "We're in this for the long haul ... and we'll work locally and at the state level," said Maryann O'Sullivan, founder of Preschool California, an advocacy group. "People are very committed and saying we need another strategy."
June 8, 2006
[More Results from San Francisco Chronicle (CA)]
Voters reject Prop. 82
California voters soundly rejected Proposition 82 on Tuesday, crushing the hopes of early-childhood education advocates who hoped to make universal preschool public policy in the nation's most populous state.
Though Proposition 82 enjoyed support in staunchly liberal enclaves like San Francisco, it was overwhelmingly rejected in the Central Valley, Orange County and other parts of the state. Reiner and his campaign aides overestimated the breadth of their support -- and misjudged the depth of the opposition's.
June 7, 2006
[More Results from The Mercury News (CA)]
Voters reject Prop. 82
California voters soundly rejected Proposition 82 Tuesday, crushing the hopes of early childhood education advocates who hoped to make universal preschool public policy in the nation's most populous state.
Throughout much of the evening, returns showed that 60 percent of voters statewide opposed Prop. 82 while just 40 percent supported it, making it nearly impossible for the measure to ever get the simple majority it needed to pass.
"It doesn't look good," admitted Hollywood director Rob Reiner, who spoke to about 200 supporters at a Los Angeles hotel ballroom shortly after 10 p.m. But he vowed to fight on, saying that the push for universal preschool would not go away. "This is important, and if it is not today the train has left the station."
June 7, 2006
[More Results from The Mercury News (CA)]
Some preschools are opposed to Prop. 82
It came as a shock to the sponsors of California's two failed school voucher ballot initiatives when their idea was rejected by many of the private schools which could have begun collecting state money under those plans.
Similarly, preschools by the dozen have surprised advocates of Proposition 82 this spring, insisting they favor the concept of universal preschool advanced by the current initiative, but don't like what it might force them to do. Their opinions eerily echo those expressed six years ago, when Headmaster Thomas Hudnut of the elite Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles viewed the 2000 Proposition 38, most recent effort by California's voucher advocates.
June 6, 2006
[More Results from Pasadena Star-News]
Props. 82, 81 rejected
CALIFORNIA VOTERS soundly rejected an effort to create universal preschools throughout the state.
In defeating Proposition 82, Californians wisely ended a two-year effort by actor Rob Reiner and other backers of creating state-operated preschools with revenue solely from high-income taxpayers. Evidently voters realized that Prop. 82 was unfair taxation of a mobile sector of the population and that the measure was a highly inefficient way to provide preschools for children who were not already attending classes.
Proposition 81, the statewide library bond measure, also went down to defeat even though Democrats, who usually favor such issues, came out in larger numbers than Republicans.
June 6, 2006
[More Results from Contra Costa Times (CA)]
Prop 82: No, no, no
If ever a political matter illustrated the proverbial wisdom that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, it is Proposition 82.
Rob Reiner's "free preschool for all" initiative stems from the filmmaker-activist's sincere concern that many poor children's lack of early intellectual development dooms them to substandard lives. But Reiner came to believe his altruism was all that mattered - that in pursuing his crusade, he had no responsibility to forge wise public policy or to behave in ethical fashion.
June 5, 2006
[More Results from The San Diego Union-Tribune (CA)]
Preschool for All by Tricia Shore
The California crowd, a generally insecure lot who so worries their pretty heads about whether their infant is reading a Baby Einstein flashcard more quickly than their neighbor's, tends to take preschool pretty darn seriously.
Private preschools and kindergartens and such can run you $20,000 per year easily. You are often judged as a parent based on your child's preschool. Yes, the preschool. People have every right to do this, of course. I've heard many moms tell me that they dropped their three-year-old off at preschool with the little one crying for mommy not to leave. "But I had to," one mother dramatically said, "It's for his own good!" At three' That particular mother spoke two languages and yet, she evidently found it beyond her reach to think about teaching her own child the alphabet of either language. Or anything else.
June 5, 2006
[More Results from LewRockwell (CA)]
Vote 'no' on Prop. 82
VOTERS should join scores of businesses, education advocates, preschools, legislators and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in turning down Rob Reiner's Proposition 82 that proposes to tax the rich to provide free preschool for wealthy and middle-class kids.
That's right, while proponents say the Universal Preschool for All Act is necessary to give impoverished youngsters access to quality preschool, analysts say middle-class parents will most likely be the main users of the free half-day sessions. Poor children are already afforded preschool through Head Start and other programs. The wealthy, of course, need no subsidies.
May 7, 2006
[More Results from Pasadena Star-News]
No on Proposition 82
Preschool initiative amounts to welfare for middle-class parents. Voters in the June 6 primary should vote "no" on Prop. 82 and let parents meet their own obligations without subsidies.
Proponents of Proposition 82 want the state to do what parents should: care for their children. The most fiscally dangerous political initiative to emerge from Hollywood director Rob Reiner's rather generous cranium in recent years seeks to pay for the preschool education of every child â€" even those whose parents can afford it on their own.
April 30, 2006
[More Results from Press-Telegram]
The Case Against Universal Preschool in California
The Institute for American's Future and the Center for American Progress are calling for $325 billion of added federal education spending over the next decade to create a nationwide, universal preschool program.
Although the coalition has not released a specific plan, typical universal preschool proposals call for replacing the private parentdriven
preschool system with a taxpayer-funded system that would likely add one or two years of "voluntary" preschool for all children onto the current K-12 public education system.
Nationwide, at least 40 states provide funding for preschool programs, and at least 28 considered legislation to expand state-funded preschool programs in 2005.
April 17, 2006
[More Results from Reason (CA)]
Disingenuous ploy: Reiner should stop hiding behind 'the kids'
Perhaps the most tiresome Stupid Politician Trick of all is when someone under fire declares that the real goal of his critics is to try to hurt the weak and powerless folks he protects.
This defense is so common that it's become a cliche: "I'm just trying to help the kids," said Sen. For-Sale Smith as he downplayed the $10 million that mysteriously turned up in his bank account.
March 18, 2006
[More Results from The San Diego Union-Tribune (CA)]
Ohio Infant & Toddler Guidelines Unveiled
COLUMBUS -- A leadership team of private and public organizations this week unveiled developmental guidelines for Ohio's youngest children, from birth to age three.
The "birth announcement" was held at COSI in Columbus and included remarks by Ohio First Lady Hope Taft. Designed to assist parents, providers and policy makers, the Guidelines include the following developmental domains and include best practices in the areas of: health, emotional, social, motor, language/communication and cognitive.
March 12, 2006
[More Results from PR Newswire (CA)]
| Copyright 2004-2024, Diane Flynn Keith, All Rights Reserved. | Privacy Policy Contact Universal Preschool.com |
Hosted & Designed by: | |
