its shocking how little regard States have for our children

[ensho]

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_us_prekindergarten_cuts.html


States slash pre-K programs as budgets bleed


States are cutting hundreds of millions from their prekindergarten budgets, undermining years of working to help young children - particularly poor kids - get ready for school.

-snip-

One state - Arizona - has proposed eliminating its 5,500-child program entirely. Illinois cut $32 million from last fiscal year's pre-k budget and plans to slash another $48 million this year.

"The overall impact is less access to a quality education in the early years at a time when parents have reduced capability to purchase that on their own," said Steve Barnett, co-director of the Rutgers institute. "Families are getting hit from both sides."

Wealthier parents can afford to send their kids to private preschools, but children from poorer families will likely languish in lower-quality childcare that doesn't prepare them for kindergarten, experts said.
-snip-
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these States will lose out in the end

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. the Federal gov should fund

instead of spending it on wars.

[Angry Dragon]

2. This country will lose out in the end

[ensho]

4. true

nt

[unhappycamper]

3. But, but, but

we really do need those $243 million dollar F-35s, and those $100 million dollar MV-22 Ospreys, and those $5 billion dollar Zumwalt-class destroyers, and those $2.8 billion dollar submarines, and those $600+ million dollar LCS ships, and that $40 billion dollar aircraft carrier, and. . . .

[ensho]

7. true - its the Pentagon bringing us down

yes, make one less plane - kids get to go to school, one less tank - kids get breakfast at school

etc., etc.

[villager]

5. it's simply an extension of how little regard "grown-ups" (so-called) have for our children

...which is manifested in budget priorities overall (war: good, spending it on *you*, kid: bad), the destruction of the planet ("you won't living in a planet that's four degrees warmer, will ya kid?), and even the pitiful assembly lines that pass for "education..."

Has there ever been another mammalian species so hostile to its young, overall?

[NeedleCast]

6. Prepare them for Kindergarten?

Christ on a pony...the helicopter parent society starts younger and younger.

When I was a kid, my Kindergarten class was a half day (four hours, 8:30 to 12:30) and then I went home and played outside on my Big Wheel.

[notesdev]

12. I was thinking the same thing

Do we really need to prepare kids for kindergarten? For what purpose? To get a head start on the epic education fail the system is so eager to provide?

[kctim]

8. Its even more shocking

how little regard parents have for their own children.

[Angry Dragon]

9. Make abortions illegal

and then forget about the child after it is born.

[ensho]

10. yes, abortion isn't the object.. neo cons use abortion as a tool

the same as religion does.

forced pregnancys make for bad vibes

[OHdem10]

11. How many States have Republican Governors or Center Right

Democrats??? Personal Responsibility means parents are
responsible for their children. There are consequences
to elections. It is not shocking to see these things
happening when states insist on RW Government. This is
what they whish to install nationally.

[LWolf]

13. The most important years,

as far as brain development for academic potential goes, happen before kindergarten.

That's why children from enriched backgrounds start so far ahead of those from impoverished backgrounds. The achievement gap begins before school ever starts, and widens once it does, because some have formed and strengthened many, many more of the neural connections needed for academic learning before they get to school.

The biggest things we can do to close the achievement gap are to close the socio-economic gaps and to provide enrichment to children from birth forward in the form of parent-ed, parent-child classes like mommy/daddy & me, and pre-schools.

Schools need our support and attention, too, but the biggest bang for the buck are on those things we can do before kindergarten.

[stray cat]

14. States are not people - the question is what are you willing to pay to help children?

particularly those who are not your own....

[ensho]

15. a country educating its children isn't a 'helping' situation

guess that's what the problem is.

some people think of public education as helping the masses

some people think public education is required to give a country a step up in success.