Connecticut

This article says it exactly. Money is poured into childcare by the government and no changes in childcare occur that a child or a family would notice. It's the same old story. When politicians call for big investments in early childhood education, it amounts to a "feel good about me" status quo.

In all the years I've worked in early childhood, I have yet to see a single positive difference made for kids from grants, from funding or from gifts. So called teachers are still dragged in off the street and last about six weeks. Programs are non academic because those who have been dragged in can't read. Centers spend most of their time trying to lengthen naps and cut food costs.

Where are the funds going? Into studies, into councils, into the pockets of the experts who really aren't experts, but need a big paycheck so they can act like experts and talk about program development that never happens. Funds find their way into very expensive buildings that can be show places for politicians. It's a terrible fraud. The word early childhood has become a slippery eelish convenience that makes a speech seem near and dear. Watch for black tongue!

Preschool Initiatives Fall Short in Bridgeport

LINDA CONNER LAMBECK lclambeck@ctpost.com

HARTFORD — For all the talk at the state level about expanding preschool, 44 fewer 3- and 4-year-olds are being served in Bridgeport this year.

The $292,258 increase the city got in early childhood education funding for the 2005-06 school year was swallowed up by the $250 increases providers got for each child they served.

Even so, on the eve of her annual budget address, Gov. M. Jodi Rell is pushing forward on one of last year's pledges: to create an Early Childhood Research and Policy Council.

Rell signed an executive order Tuesday creating the 31-member council that will meet in about a month. It will include representatives of state and private agencies, educational associations and teachers' unions, as well as business leaders, legislators and top municipal officials.

"We are ready to do more than talk," said Commissioner of Higher Education Valerie Lewis, one of three chairpeople assigned to the council.

Lewis also sits on Rell's Early Childhood Cabinet, which advises Rell on budgetary aspects of early childhood. The council will work as the cabinet's research arm.

"My understanding is there is another proposal for another step of investment this year in early childhood," Lewis said.

Rell has already committed $27 million over two years for preschool. Her office Tuesday would not say how much more she supports spending in the second year of the biennium.

The state now spends $48 million a year on school readiness. What didn't go for reimbursement increases went to establish 147 new preschool slots in Norwich.

The state Board of Education, in its request to the Legislature, asked for $14.6 million more to accommodate half the preschoolers in the state's poorest districts who are not now getting preschool.

Lewis said the council will develop a business plan by fall detailing what is needed, how to pay for it and how to create enough teachers to carry the plan out. Under a state law passed last year, every state-funded preschool class will need at least one teacher with a bachelor's degree by 2015.

Bridgeport serves 1,011 preschoolers with state funds. Last year, it served 1,055. Meanwhile, an estimated 1,411 kids go without preschool. Bridgeport this year gets about $6.9 million. Last year the city received $6.6 million. The added money went toward per-student increase, from $7,500 to $7,750.