Preschool for All

This is an enormous program with a lot of very difficult goals. The question to ask is, do we really want the state - any state- to get a hold of our children as early as three? The old adage: give me a child before he is SIX and he's mine forever. If we believe the parent is the primary educator of the child, is this program one that will undermine the home for the sake of an ideology?

On the other hand, if children are neglected, which many are, is this a plan to save those children who simply lose those years before school.

Here's the article:

Ledger Dispatch Amador, CA
Child care council to hold public forum on Preschool for All
Wednesday, September 07, 2005

The Preschool for All Act (also known as the Reiner Initiative) was filed with the state to appear on the primary election ballot in June 2006. If passed, the initiative would tax the wealthiest Californians to pay for a voluntary statewide preschool system for all 4-year-olds. The Amador Child Care Council is holding a public forum on Tuesday, Sept. 13 at the Holiday Inn Express in Jackson from 6 to 8 p.m. The guest presenter will be Wendy Wayne, Ed.D., the lead consultant for the Child Development Policy Institute Education Fund.

Prior to that, Wayne was the division administrator for child development and family services for the Kern County superintendent of schools, overseeing 16 child development centers, the child care resource and referral program and the alternative payment program, among others.

She is also heading up the Preschool for All Leadership Institute, a joint effort by CDPI Education Fund and the California Association for the Education of Young Children that is funded by the David and Lucille Packard Foundation to engage the early care and education field to play a leading role in Preschool for All.

The Preschool for All Act charges the state superintendent of public instruction to oversee the programs, which will be delivered through the county superintendents of schools.

County superintendents have the responsibility to work with a local advisory committee to create a county preschool for all plan that will:

• Meet the needs of local families, including full-day child care for working parents

• Ensure multiple roles for parent participation

• Ensure, through research-based approaches, that English language learners achieve school readiness by providing well-trained teachers and aides

• Ensure that children with special needs are meaningfully included

• Put quality teachers and aides in place and assure that they are compensated comparably to kindergarten through 12th grade teachers and aides

• Coordinate with existing child care providers, elementary schools and districts

• Utilize existing facilities and other cost-effective measuresThe Amador Child Care Council encourages everyone who is interested in young children to attend, especially parents and early childhood educators.