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Almost everyone champions the value of early education. Yet state lawmakers resist fully investing in kindergarten
Published on Sunday, Nov 04, 2007
With the measure, state lawmakers would like to suggest they have resolved the confusion over funding all-day kindergarten. It is a fix all right — the sort that prompts deeper questions about touted ambitions to shape a model of world-class education and turn around the fortunes of the state.
Ohio provides funds for half-day kindergarten in public schools. Districts with high rates of poverty, including Akron, receive full funding for all-day programs. All other districts are free to offer a full program — provided they can finance it themselves. Many districts do, charging parents tuition fees for the program.
Those districts, among them Green and Stow-Munroe Falls, found themselves on shaky ground early in this school year over their all-day programs. In response to questions from the Department of Education, Marc Dann, the state attorney general, advised that nothing in state law authorized schools to charge tuition for kindergarten.
The districts suddenly faced an unexpected dilemma. They could scramble for alternate funding from their general revenues, revert to half-day sessions or ignore the law and continue charging fees, anyway.
If the legislative action has cleared up the legal issue of tuition authority, it has raised a more fundamental question as well. Ted Strickland, staunch advocate of early education, rode into the governor's office with a pledge to align funding for public education with goals for a globally competitive Ohio.
If the key is education and the K-12 system is a public good, where is the governor's promised plan for funding efficiently this public good, this route that he and legislative leaders insist Ohio must take to turn things around?
Kindergarten is an integral part of a basic educational system. It is critical to achievement. Districts scrambling to support all-day programs on their own recognize the value of the strong start early education provides. The state doesn't pay for a half day of first, second or any grade and expect districts to pay for an all-day program if they can find the money.
As it is, the Statehouse's approach toward all but the poor districts is that a half-day of kindergarten is good enough and all that is worth funding. Lawmakers appear content with patchwork. In this case, they have done little more than shift responsibility for the cost of a critical portion of basic education to districts and to those parents who can afford the tuition.
Get the full article here.
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