Preschool Battle

Here we have it again - the argument whether preschool helps or hinders a child. Do we send a child to school because of what may or may not happen in the future. I think we are grasping the real issue here - are preschool children really human, or are they a figment of our imaginations?

We know infants matter - because they make all the noise and they are really cute.

We know toddlers matter because they need to be caught before they injure themselves, and they take all the time.

But once a child settles down and begins to be a functioning member of the community, his small self seems to stop counting. All his clothes, his food, his education, time, toys and occasions are an investment in his future as if the present has no meaning.

Preschool and day care are considered the same thing - a holding pattern - until a child is able to play sports or some other nonsense. Is the real question a question of "what do we teach very young children?" or is the real question "What's the point?"

If the answer is related in any way to "between the ages of three and six, a child will learn at a far faster pace and more than at any other time," then the question to ask is: what can't you teach a preschooler?"

This week we're finishing our studies on Africa. We've looked at the Egyptians and the desert regions of Africa. Today we will look at the Serengeti Plain. We will look at where the water comes from, and the difference between the shallow view of the jungle vs the longer view of the open plain and how these natural things take part in the lives of the people who live there.


Long Beach Press Telegram
Long Beach California

Bad News for Preschool Study shows that little might be gained from schooling for 4-year-olds.

In June, California voters will be asked to approve spending $2.4 billion a year on prekindergarten schooling for 4-year-olds in the hope it will improve their educational outcomes in future years. But a recent study dims that hope considerably.

The study was conducted by UC Santa Barbara researchers Russell W. Rumberger and Loan Tran of the UC Linguistic Minority Research Institute, who concluded that preschool for 4-year-olds did improve performance, though the changes were, in their words, not large, and tended to dissipate by third grade. They also were associated with a greater likelihood of behavioral problems, although the negative results also dissipated by third grade.

What's a voter to make of this? For one thing, the proposal becomes a lot more questionable than the original assumption, which was that putting high-risk youngsters in preschool would improve their otherwise relatively poor chances of academic success.

That idea is appealing, because children of low-income, non-English-speaking immigrants are in no position to start kindergarten in the same classroom with children from more affluent families who offer a far richer environment in which to prepare for school. Obviously, preschool training could offset at least some of that.

But not much, according to the study's findings, which suggest that these children need far more help, whether in more effective preschool programs or later assistance or both.

There are other problems with Proposition 82, as the measure is known.

Rather than focusing on high-risk children, it simply makes state-funded, state-run preschool classes available for anybody who wants them, including those who now pay for their children's preschools and can well afford them.

One of the study's authors, Rumberger, told the Orange County Register that a previous study by the RAND Corp. indicated that preschool improves future test scores, but that study relied on 20-year-old data. Times have changed.

Data may not make the difference, though, because Proposition 82 has a zinger: It would pay for the preschool programs with a 1.7 percent tax on the affluent — those making more than $400,000 a year ($800,000 for a couple). Most voters will see it as a free ride.

No tax increase is a free ride, because of the negative impact on the economy when money is pulled out of more productive uses, or when high-income high achievers are encouraged to move to income-tax-free Nevada.

Public preschool education is far from free, and, at least in the form of Proposition 82, it is far from the best way to raise and spend $2.4 billion.