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Andrew White,
New York Daily News, October 13, 2005
Early education is the next frontier of public education reform. We know
now, more than ever, how important quality preschool programs are to
preparing city children to succeed in school and to helping families rise
out of poverty.
Government-funded preschools in Chicago, Atlanta, Tulsa and many other
cities and states have prepared children from low-income families to learn
to read and write on time, resulting in lower special education costs,
fewer kids held back in primary school, more teenagers graduating high
school and fewer young people involved in delinquency and crime.
Yet, tens of thousands of 3- and 4-year-olds in New York City can't get
into state-funded pre-kindergartens because of spending caps, and most of
these preschools are part-day programs, not very useful for most working
parents.
Last week, Mayor Bloomberg made a campaign promise of a broad new
investment in top-quality child care and early education, including
full-day preschool for all 4-year-olds, more full and half-day preschool
for 3-year-olds, and a more streamlined and accountable system of
subsidized care for younger children from low-income and working poor
families.
The expansion of the city's education system to 3- and 4-year-olds would
cost hundreds of millions of dollars each year - but the potential payoff
is substantial, and long overdue.
In Chicago, each year's cohort of children in that city's renowned Child
Parent Centers saves the city an estimated 18% in expected special
education costs as they move through the public schools. The impact of a
truly universal preschool program could be even more substantial in New
York City. Special education alone consumed $3.7 billion of the city's
education budget last year, out of total school spending of $13.1 billion,
according to the Independent Budget Office.
The success of early education programs depends on quality - and that
means a strong workforce. The challenge in this city would be to boost the
status and pay of preschool staffers so they are more in line with those
of public schools.
Many of the most qualified early education teachers will stay on the job
only a year or two before gaining their full teacher's certification and
taking a job in a public elementary school. Across the state, well over
half of the early childhood teaching assistants and aides working in
community-based centers have at most a high school education or less,
according to a new study by the Economic Policy Institute.
Transforming early education for New York City is a bold proposal that
relies in part on new state funding from the settlement of the
longstanding Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, and on a thorough
restructuring of the existing child care system. But it is one that people
from all walks of life, from business leaders to educators to single
parents, can believe in.
White is director of the Center for New York City
Affairs at The New School.
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