West Hartford -- Nearly 6,500 students in Connecticut enter kindergarten each year never having attended preschool. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy wants to reduce that number by 500 students in the state's poorest districts.
"We've got to close that achievement gap" between low-income students and their peers who attend preschool, he said Thursday, standing on the playground of the School for Young Children at St. Joseph College. "This is the best invested dollar."
His plan calls on the legislature to approve spending an additional $4 million to help the state's 19 lowest-achieving school districts move closer to universal preschool.
In the last school year, 16 percent of the state's 40,000 kindergarteners did not attend preschool, but the numbers are significantly higher in some of the state's low-income districts. In Bridgeport and Waterbury, 30 percent of students enter kindergarten with no preschool experience. In Malloy's hometown of Stamford, it's 25 percent.
Diane Morton, the director of the School for Young Children at St. Joseph College in West Hartford.
Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor said that existing private and public preschools have room in the fall for these additional 500 students.
But there's a question as to what happens to the thousands of students in some of the other districts. In West Hartford, for example, 20 percent of students have never attended a preschool because their parents often can't afford to send them.
"The stories are all the same from the parents we have to turn away: they are a single parent just trying to make ends meet," said Diane Morton, the director of the School for Young Children.
Her school offers reduced rates to 5 percent of their students, but "We can't afford to do any more" than that, she said.
Malloy has routinely said that the state cannot afford a universal preschool system. The cost of such a system could cost $50 million, which does not include the cost of building the new preschool facilities that would be needed for the remaining 6,000 students.
What's in a grade?
The administration is also looking to take several other steps to beef up preschool.
Malloy and state Sen. Beth Bye, D-West Hartford, are proposing that Connecticut follow the lead of 22 other states and create a statewide report card for preschool programs. The plan calls for the state to borrow $5 million to set up this grading system.
Connecticut lost the most points in its recent bid for federal Race to the Topdollars because it lacked a grading system. Previous attempts -- the most recent was in 2008 -- to initiate such a system stalled because of cost.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy: A focus on early education
The state spends $225 million on early childhood programs annually, according to Connecticut Voices for Children. Whether all 4,231 programs will be required to be graded has not been determined. It is also expected to take a few years before the system is in place, officials said.
Better teachers, better students
The state also lost major points in its Race to the Top application for not having a strong plan to bolster the education requirements of preschool teachers.
Malloy's plan does not increase the education requirements of teachers in the programs the state funds, but it does offer a new $3 million pot of money each year to send teachers to workshops and college.
"We are ensuring quality," Pryor said.
State law will require some of the teachers in programs that receive state money to have at least an associate's degree by 2015.
The state spends $100 million a year through the Care 4 Kids program to pay for day care for 21,000 children each month so their parents can go to work but these program don't require an education component.
Malloy's plan will offer early education courses to those providers who are interested.
"We need to get an education component to our home day care providers," said Harriet Feldlaufer, head of Teaching and Learning at the State Department of Education. "This will help do that."
All these initiatives, Malloy said, are aimed at making sure students aren't starting behind when they enter kindergarten. An assessment of incoming kindergarteners last school year shows almost 25 percent are in need of a large degree of literacy and language instruction to catch up to their classmates.
"Until that number is zero we still have much work to do," Malloy said.
Can we apply a logic model to this issue?
Inner city children exposed to violence, neglect, abuse and poverty ---> Become traumatized ---> Trauma in children forces them into survival mode ---> Survival mode engages and strengthens the Reptilian section of the brain---> The reptilian section of the brain is the simplest and only offers three option Fight, Flight or Freeze ---> In this state the portions of the brain that learn and our creative are suppressed by the desire to survive.
How can we expect children who are in a constant state of trauma to go and
Read MoreTo Andrew Wiggin,
So what's your conclusion? Give up on these kids? Let our society perpetuate violence, neglect, abuse and poverty. Something has to be done somewhere to stop or at least put a dent into this destructive cycle.
I'm no liberal by a long shot, but I'd rather see money going into early childhood education where it might do some good vs a bus way or Jackson Labs.
Excuse my ignorance, but when did pre-school become a requirement? Do we not believe that there are any stay-at-home parents who are caring for their children before they begin kindergarten? Few of us are products of pre-school, and we are doing just fine. I find it hard to believe that the 20% of West Hartford kindergarteners who didn't attend pre-school are so because of economic struggle - maybe they just have a parent or other family member at home.
Mr. Wiggins: So, what is the solution you have in mind? Stable biological two parent households, aided and comforted by extended families, and stable communities free from drugs and gangs, is what I have been advocating. In U.S.A this would mean a complete social revolution, but that is beyond the capacity of any individual and human effort. Money and hiring of more teachers is not going to solve the inherent problems.
Children who do not have educated parents and enriching environments need well-educated preschool teachers to advance their cognitive development.
Wihtout a strong preschool experience, these children never catch up to their peers and will perpetuate generational poverty.
Preschool teachers must earn degrees in child development. They must be paid living wages and health benefits . Of course, preschools should have measurable ojectives and undergo performance reviews.
Generational poverty is a huge cost to society, much larger than ensuring that the population of young children described above is afforded the cognitive development they need.
WordyGirl, I bet you as a young child didn't live in an inner city environment like that found in Hartford, Bridgeport, etc. I am in the unusual position of agreeing with Vandelay. Up front investment can be preventative. Do you really think kids, in general, growing up in inner city Hartford are just as prepared for kindergarten as you were?
I have a family member who grew up in a one parent home and this parent worked the night shift. You and realkook think families like this should function the same as yours when you grew up?!
Sammy Clemens: Every individual has a choice to make. When we bring into this world our offspring, voluntarily, it is our moral, ethical, and legal obligation to ensure the well being of our offspring, even when that means a lot of personal sacrifices to make. This is the moral family lesson that is totally lost. We can not have open marriages, nor can we cheat our spouses when they are on death bed, nor have dalliance with innumerable individuals of opposite sex, nor use power to oppress the opposite sex. This moral compass should be the guiding factor
Read MoreRealkook - that will happen three seconds after there is no hunger or war in the world. In the words of my grandmother - "Coulda, Shouda, Wouda be darned - do the best you have with what you got." Many of these children are born to parents who are the product of many years or generations of poverty, drug abuse, etc. Maybe some of these people should not be parents, but I would rather invest in education than pay to house these children as prisoners when they become adults. And in the words of Chris Rock
Read MoreSingle parents are inferior to animals? The kids born into these tough situations made choices? Many people end up in these situations for a variety of reasons, many unrelated to moral competence. A single father whose wife died is to blame for his lack of morality?! Your position, as repulsive as it is, is informative because many republicans take such a simplistic, ideological view of the problem.
The reality of the situation is that people end up in very tough situations and dismissing the problem as moral decay hardly provides solutions to the problem at hand.
These are not
Read MoreAny rule will have exceptions, but they should be construed very narrowly, and very strictly. In short, exceptions should not become the rule, and make the rule an exception.
This has nothing to do with politics.
Hence, there is no point in quoting some rare exceptions (as a cover up for individual and societal failures) to create widely ever expanding entitlement programs, with new schemes being invented on a daily basis, to add to the burden of the hard working people (the silent majority), and with inevitable abuses that will ensue as in the case of Irene.
Read MoreLet's just call this what it really is and then move on but remember when November comes.
This is free DAY CARE.
Nothing less and, certainly, nothing more.
Kook, any data to support your position...any?! You draw a wildly extreme conclusion from your ivory tower view and can't offer any justification.
Chicopee, yes just "day care". Growth and development of young children has a negligible impact on their long term well being - all those studies be damned.
Our society is indeed good in peddling all kinds junk science, both for and against again proposition. Any economist, any psychologist, and any psychiatrist can offer a diverse opinion based upon how much expert fee is paid to them. So, forget about your reliance on cockamamie theories. We have millions of years of real history and wisdom that is handed down to us by our forefathers. That is based upon observations of a larger population over a longer period, rather than the cooked up short term manipulated theories. That is why every federal court is now considered to be a
Read MoreMy solution is without a clearly defined strategy to help negate the effects of trauma on children the effort will not be successful. The components exist and can be easily implemented to any program and we will see dramatic changes in our state if utilized correctly. Parent Mentoring, trauma informed teachers, in home therapeutic services, etc...
Think about our current welfare system it does not offer a solution it simply offers sustained poverty. For the traumatized mind the worst thing that can be done is to remove the ability to move towards a solution.
Apply this to your
Read MoreMake no mistake this is 100% political. It is no secret that Gov. Malloy has his eye on the White House in 2016 and education reform is his platform. We need to make sure the "reform" is done with one parameter "i this the best decisions for the kids?" if Yes we move on, if no it is dead.
This issue is too important to rest on the desire of one man to hold a higher office.
I feel for these kids, but these "necessary" programs is what is killing our State. We are constantly finding new ways to spend money, and new ways to make it more affordable for the poor to have MORE kids. I work very hard to provide for my children, and I had as may children as I felt I could afford.
There has to be a balance between helping and enabling. In FY 2002 DSS spent 3.9 Billion. In FY 2010 spending at DSS was 5.5 Billion, and the requested amount for 2013 is 6.3 Billion....after spending
Read More"He brings experience. He's been elected."
Mike Clark on endorsing State Sen. Andrew Roraback for the Republican nomination for the 5th Congressional District race.
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