Saturday, December 17, 2011

This is insane--cut throat pre-K applications

Are New Yorkers crazy? $30,000 for a private pre-school, and 28,817 applicants for 19,834 slots in the city’s public pre-K programs? So some have formed co-ops. Sounds like they aren't the play groups that I had with 3-4 other Moms in Upper Arlington in the early 1970s.
The dearth of high-quality preschool education for poor children has been widely reported, but there is a growing middle-class gap when it comes to prekindergarten. “Access is actually lower for middle-income people than it is for people that are poor,” said Steven Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research, a research and advocacy group that supports universal prekindergarten. Those who say middle-class families should just pay for preschool themselves, Mr. Barnett said, “don’t understand how expensive it is.”
Underground Pre-K Groups.
I don't really agree with the author on the benefits of pre-school (33% higher income in one study). The children who attend high quality schools also come from highly educated, 2 parent, high income homes with a lot of enrichment opportunities. If not, they probably lose any gains they supposedly got in pre-school. It appears that New York's strict standards, regulations and red tape for child care have caused a higher demand, fewer facilities, and a way for those on top to stay there.

The author and her husband and some other families they knew in their neighborhood created a co-op pre-school. Ending 3 weeks early after some families moved and replacements had to be found, it was exhausting. "Emotionally burned and mentally depleted, my husband and I vowed never to do it again." But they did.

One commenter, "Redstate," really became unglued with older mothers puzzling over how it could be such a big deal to help a child get ready for kindergarten. Another practically has your kid enrolled in prison if you don't get him into pre-school!

In my opinion, which means nothing to young parents or New Yorkers, the push to get more children in school before age 5 is a quest for more schools, more public teachers and more union members.

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