Advocates want more college
graduates to teach state-funded preschool classes approved by voters, but
lawmakers worry about the cost of paying higher salaries and the effects
on a shallow education labor pool. by Matthew Pinzur and Mary Ellen Flannery, Miami Herald, March 7,
2004
After 35 years of designing wedding gowns, of tantrums about lace and
tears about tulle, Gaby Davila decided to start working with children
instead of brides who behaved like them.
"I should have done this all my life," said Davila, 52, who has taught
preschool for five years at King's Meadow Day School in Southwest
Miami-Dade County.
Florida's promise of state-funded pre-kindergarten for all 4-year-olds by
fall 2005 will create a massive demand for people like Davila, but
regulations debated in Tallahassee may require the new teachers to have
far more education than she and many of her peers possess.
Current state regulations require at least one teacher for every 20
children in a school to hold either an education degree or certification
as a child development associate, or CDA, which requires 120 hours of
classroom training and a professional review.
Many early-childhood advocates want more stringent requirements that would
require more highly educated teachers in programs receiving state funding.
"More training and education, particularly education, makes them more
likely to be effective, high-quality teachers," said Mark Ginsberg,
director of the National Association for the Education of Young Children
in Washington, D.C.
He cautioned that some preschools are little more than baby-sitting
services if they are not staffed with well-trained teachers.
Lawmakers, however, are wary of drafting rules that could significantly
raise costs -- teachers with degrees command higher salaries.
Legislators also worry about further draining the labor pool of
professional teachers, already brought shallow by the demands of the K-12
school system.
"Implementation's going to be a bear," Gov. Jeb Bush said in December at
the National Governors Association conference.
BUSH'S GOALS
His proposal, which mirrors one by a state advisory panel, would require
at least one teacher in each pre-K classroom to have an associate's degree
in early childhood education by 2010, and at least one with a bachelor's
degree in that area by 2013.
"We can't afford anything less than quality," said David Lawrence Jr., one
of Florida's leading pre-K advocates and Bush's special assistant to
implement the program. ``There's a reason why people have college
educations."
The regulations are expected to undergo fierce debate during the
legislative session, and some lawmakers said the degree requirements might
be unrealistic.
"Would it be nice to have [a teacher with a degree]? Yes, but it would
also be nice to drive a Mercedes-Benz," said Rep. Ralph Arza, R-Hialeah,
vice chairman of the House Education Committee, which will debate the
program this month. ``Where does quality meet what we can afford?"
Teachers with education degrees will command far more than the $10,000 to
$20,000 a year normally paid to CDAs, which would force the state to spend
more on the pre-K program or force parents to find more money to cover the
difference.
"Schools like this cannot compete for college graduates," said Jona
Ferrante, who owns King's Meadow and has worked in Florida preschools for
more than 20 years. ``They'd be making the same as my assistant director,
and tuition just is not going to cover that."
Fewer than half of her teachers have those degrees, and even the ones who
do said they are not convinced it should be required.
"What's also important is experience," said June McGiboney, who holds an
associate's degree and has taught at King's Meadow for seven years.
The King's Meadow curriculum includes the alphabet, counting and
vocabulary-building. During a story about outer space, one 4-year-old
remembered that the holes on the moon are called "craters," and another
identified a picture of a ringed planet as Saturn.
Primarily, though, Ferrante's teachers teach social skills the children
will need to succeed in kindergarten: how to play in groups, how to listen
to a lesson, how to raise their hands before answering a question.
Arza said he would try to eliminate Bush's proposed degree requirements
and said CDAs could handle the classrooms if the state required at least
one degree-holding teacher to design and oversee the curriculum at each
school.
Bush's press secretary said the phase-in of teachers with degrees remains
a priority.
LIMITS ON ABILITIES
Experts at Florida International University and Nova Southeastern
University's Mailman Segal Institute for Early Childhood Studies agree
that CDAs have limits.
The certification qualifies them to write lesson plans, organize the
classroom in a stimulating way and sit down with a few children and a good
reading book. Without additional training, though, they cannot necessarily
create an appropriate curriculum, thoroughly assess a child's progress or
adjust lessons to fit a child's needs, said Mary Jean Woika, who teaches
CDA classes at the Mailman Segal Institute.
"I'm not ashamed of my CDA program for one second, but we can't add
anything more to it," said Jesse Leinfelder, associate director of the
institute.
At about $7 an hour, she said, ``They're the same people serving you at
McDonald's."
Nova's Family Center Preschool in Broward County is a deluxe model, with
one CDA and a teacher with at least a bachelor's in education in every
classroom.
In one room, where the 4-year-olds were reading a Maya Angelou story about
an African girl and her pet chicken, the kids have penned passports for
themselves. Under teacher Carol Hubler's feet, one boy is counting plastic
monkeys. Across the room, kids stare at the eggs in their incubator while
others bandage stuffed animals at a safari clinic.
"We don't just sit down and have them color between the lines," said Joan
Gabriele, whose children attended the center and who is now studying there
to become a CDA.
The center's tuition is $10,000 a year -- more than double Ferrante's
program.
Funding for the Florida plan will not be determined until next year, but a
bill now before the House suggests $2,500 a year per child.
TRIMMING COSTS
Lawmakers are certain to be looking for ways to minimize its cost in
Florida's still-tight economy, much as lawmakers in other states have
tried to cut corners on similar programs.
"Certain members of the General Assembly have tried to chip away at this,
asking why they should pay $32,000 for a teacher when they can pay $16,000
for a child-care worker," said Kay Henderson, administrator of Illinois'
preschool program, which requires a teaching certificate as well as a
bachelor's degree.
Even if money were not a factor, Florida is strapped for educators. With
the 20,000 to 40,000 children Bush expects to enroll, the market would
immediately need 2,000 to 4,000 pre-K teachers.
"We're going to have to grow a lot more, educate a whole generation and
attract people who would probably be in early elementary grades," said
Chuck Bleiker, FIU professor of early childhood education.
When Georgia started requiring teachers with degrees or certificates in
each classroom, it offered salary incentives and other programs for CDAs
to increase their education.
"When you raise the bar and you make sure you have ways for people to get
the credentials, people tend to follow it," said Marsha Moore, director of
Georgia's lottery-funded universal pre-K program.
Florida lawmakers expect to have the regulations fully written and
approved before the legislative session ends in late April or early May.
National child advocates are watching closely.
"With all the goodwill that's been generated in Florida, the fear is to
miss an opportunity," said Ginsberg, of the National Association for the
Education of Young Children. ``I know it's a challenge and there are lots
of competing issues for finances, but it's a challenge that's worth trying
to meet."
