Indiana

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Overwhelming support for full-day kindergarten

The latest opinion poll numbers show that Hoosiers already know what the national Quality Counts report suggests: Indiana needs full-day kindergarten.

In a just-released survey for Indiana University’s Center for Education and Policy, 74 percent of Hoosiers expressed support for state-financed full-day kindergarten. Sixty-one percent said they would even support a tax increase to pay for it, up from 46 percent in 2003. The support remains consistent among parents of school-age children and respondents who do not have children in school.

The center’s annual public opinion survey on education doesn’t offer any startling surprises, but it should offer some backbone to politicians still wary of a program commonplace in other states. The chorus of critics claiming that full-day kindergarten amounts to free child care should be silenced by the results. Indiana residents overwhelmingly recognize the value of early learning.

While it will be a political coup for Gov. Mitch Daniels to deliver his top legislative priority, full-day kindergarten won’t satisfy the desire for early-childhood education in Indiana. The survey finds that 82 percent of Hoosiers support state financing of voluntary pre-school for at-risk children.

Surprising, legislators have expressed few reservations about the state’s charter school program, contrary to the results of the opinion poll. For 2006, only 47 percent of the respondents said they would support the continued creation of charter schools. That continues the decline in charter school support that peaked at 56 percent in 2004.

Lawmakers should do their own homework when it comes to setting education policy and determining financial support, but they also should consider the wishes of Indiana residents. Their views on early childhood education and charter schools offer sound guidance.

Comment: Full day kindergarten is a must if day care remains play time and not learn time.