Return to Education Report Index | Return to VBE Index | Vermonters for Better Education Homepage
..
..
..
..
www.SchoolReport.com
Vermonters
for Better Education
Return
to Education Report Index | Return to VBE
Index | Vermonters for Better Education
Homepage
________________________________________ THE VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT
January 23, 2006 - Vol. 6, No. 04
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Covering education news in Vermont and beyond...
Informative, provocative, unique...
Published by Vermonters for Better Education
VBE is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to enlist parents and the public at large in achieving quality educational opportunities for all the children of Vermont by monitoring the state of education in Vermont; promoting the value of educational freedoms for all parents; and giving parents the evaluative tools with which to identify excellence. Libby Sternberg, executive director: VTBetterEd@aol.com
NEWS & ANALYSIS...AN OPEN LETTER TO THE SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE
Dear Senators Collins, Condos, Doyle, Starr and Wilton:
This week you will be taking testimony on S.132, the early education bill. This bill will enshrine in statute funding for universal preschool -- preschool programs for rich and poor alike, at taxpayer expense, with no ironclad guarantee that Vermont's fragile private childcare industry will be protected from unfair competition. I urge you to vote no on this proposal for the following reasons:
UNFAIR COMPETITION
Vermonters have been skittish about allowing Wal-Marts and other "big box" stores into their communities for fear these companies will unfairly compete with smaller homegrown businesses. But S.132 will create a far worse situation within the childcare community by allowing larger, better-funded public schools to offer programs for free while private providers have to charge for their services.
Supporters of S.132 point to the language in the bill that calls for collaborations between public and private providers. But nowhere in the bill is there a GUARANTEE that private providers will be included in a public funding stream.
S.132 allows public schools to become the "Wal-Marts" of the preschool arena. As a result, they could force out of business many small childcare providers unable to compete with free. This has already happened in some communities where public preschool is being offered. Ultimately it serves no one -- neither parents, taxpayers nor the children these programs purport to serve -- if there are FEWER childcare/preschool opportunities because the public schools have driven some players from the field.
WHY SUBSIDIZE THOSE WHO CAN AFFORD TO PAY?
While there are many Vermonters who have trouble affording quality preschool or childcare, there are also many Vermonters capable of writing the check for these services. If S.132 becomes law, parents who can afford to pay for preschool will be able to avail themselves of the free services at the local public school.
There is no good reason why taxpayers should fund the "free" preschool for those who can afford to pay. The day worker in the Northeast Kingdom should not have to foot the bill for the preschooling of the lawyer's child in St. Johnsbury.
Preschool is not mandated. Therefore the state's taxpayers don't have an obligation to pay for it.
The state pays for K-12 education because of compulsory education laws that require parents to educate their children within a certain age range. Although the state already provides free education beyond that mandated age range, that is not a reason for expanding the free public system any further.
Enrollments in the state are declining yet education costs are rising at a rapid rate. Wherever universal preschool is tried, it always ends up costing more than proponents suggest.
If the state determines it is necessary to pay for preschooling in order to better prepare children for the academic years to come, scarce resources should be focused on the neediest groups. Paying for rich and poor alike will ultimately mean that the poor will not get the resources they need.
THE RESEARCH ON PRESCHOOL DOES NOT SHOW SUSTAINABLE BENEFITS
S.132 is based on the premise that Vermonters will realize a benefit from the investment in free quality preschooling. Often supporters of free preschool point to studies that show various returns on preschool investments -- better academic achievement for preschooled children in elementary school, lower dropout rates and even higher employment. In a recent Wall Street Journal commentary, in fact, Nobel Laureate James Heckman cited the Perry preschool project and the Carolina Abecedarian program as examples of preschool programs that led to "substantial" economic benefits, compensating, he argued for "early disadvantage" in the participants' lives.
The problem with these citations, however, is that they are incomplete. The Perry preschool project involved expansive interventions in severely disadvantaged children's lives. Home visits were part of the program. And one parent in the family was required to be home during the day. In more than 40 years, no program has replicated the dramatic results found in the Perry program where researchers claim higher achievement rates and lower instances of negative outcomes (unemployment, incarceration).
The Carolina Abecedarian program also included elements besides preschooling. It involved an intensive, all-day day care -- starting when the children were infants. The children received medical care and dietary supplements and their parents received social service support. When the children started elementary school, half of them were given extra help in school.
Positive outcomes were reported, but there is no indication the preschooling component was responsible for this. Perhaps the tutoring help in elementary school was the reason. In addition, while researchers claimed the program raised IQ scores overall they did not report that these raised IQ levels were an average among four cohorts. Two of the cohorts showed improved scores while two actually lost ground.
Supporters of S.132 point to programs such as the Perry Preschool and Carolina Abecedarian programs as examples of the benefits Vermonters could reap from quality preschool programs. But to accomplish even the debatable gains of these two projects, S.132 would have to include funding for an expensive list of extras -- home visitation, dietary supplements, tutoring in elementary school and more.
THE "ACHIEVEMENT GAP" NEEDS A K-12 FOCUS
During an early education conference last year, Vermont Commissioner of Education Richard Cate stated he is "absolutely convinced" that quality preschooling is "the ONLY way to close the achievement gap" between rich and poor students.
But even supporters of publicly-funded preschooling will acknowledge that preschool programs have a "fade out" component. That is, student achievement for participants fades out in elementary school.
If we truly want to close the achievement gap, we need to be directing our attention and our resources at teaching gateway skills -- such as reading and fundamental mathematics. Sometimes the reason for lack of achievement in these areas isn't because the child is learning disabled or disadvantaged. It is, to put it bluntly, because he has a bad teacher or a teacher who doesn't understand his needs.
If Vermont is serious about closing the achievement gap, we should be giving low-income students the same advantages of their better-off peers. When a school isn't serving a child's needs, her parents should be allowed to find another one.
There are numerous examples of education leaders in the state who have done this for their own children. The head of the Vermont-NEA is among them. Low-income children should have access to the schools of their choice as well. They should be able to get out of classrooms that aren't serving their needs instead of having to wait for "reforms" to catch up with them.
In addition to choice policies, Vermont should do a rigorous re-examination of its academic standards -- which have received poor grades from numerous organizations. And, Vermont should continue to look for ways to get qualified teachers into the classroom without forcing them to jump through too many bureaucratic hoops.
Focusing our attention and our dollars on preschool as a "magic bullet" that will wipe out the achievement gap offers a false promise and could ultimately cheat low-income students if time, resources and energy are stolen from what would truly help them.
IN CONCLUSION
I urge the members of the Senate Education Committee to vote no on S.132. It is bad for Vermont's childcare industry, bad for its taxpayers, and bad for its children.
Respectfully,
Libby Sternberg
Executive Director
Vermonters for Better Education
WOULD YOU LIKE TO WEIGH IN ON EARLY ED?
If you'd like to contact members of the Senate Education Committee, their email addresses are below. You can also leave a message for them by calling the Statehouse at 1-800-322-5616.
Members of the Senate Education Committee:
-- Senator Don Collins of Franklin District, Chair, dcollins@leg.state.vt.us (supports S.132)
-- Senator Bill Doyle of Washington District, Vice-Chair wdoyle@leg.state.vt.us (position unknown)
-- Senator Jim Condos of Chittenden District, jcondos@leg.state.vt.us (supports S.132)
-- Senator Bobby Starr of Essex-Orleans District (position unknown)
-- Senator Wendy Wilton of Rutland District, WWilton@leg.state.vt.us (opposes S.132)You can also consider writing letters to the editor. Here are some newspaper addresses:
County Courier
209 Main Street
Enosburgh Falls 05450
802-933-4375
county.courier@verizon.netSt. Albans Messenger
Daily/5100
St. Albans 05478-2503
802-524-9771
Editor, Emerson Lynn
opinions@samessenger.comBurlington Free Press
College Street
Burlington 05401
802-865-4600
letters@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.comVermont Guardian (Northern Vermont)
PO Box 335
Winooski, VT 05404
Vermont Guardian (Southern Vermont)
139 Main Street, Suite 702,
Brattleboro, VT 05301
802.861.4880
877.231.5382 (toll-free)
info@vermontguardian.comOther Paper
South Burlington 05403
802-864-6670
otherpaper@adelphia.netBusiness People Vt
1233 Shelburne Road
South Burlington 05401
802-862-4109
editorial@vermontguides.comSeven Days
29 Church Street
Burlington 05401-4417
802-864-5684
letters@sevendaysvt.comColchester Sun
14 Main Street
Essex Junction 05452-3132
802-878-5282
news@essexreporter.comShelburne News
1929 Shelburne Road
Shelburne 05482-7171
802-985-3091
news@shelburnenews.comVermont Times
Webster Road
Shelburne 05482
802-985-2400
grahamcomm@adelphia.net
editor: Roz Graham 985-2490
SUPPORTERS OF UNIVERSAL PREK LOBBYING HARD
Supporters of free public preschool for rich and poor alike are lobbying both Senate Education Committee members and the State Board of Education. The State Board will probably vote on a position at their February meeting.
Meg Baker, director of the Franklin-Grand Isle Early Childhood Advisory Council, has emailed people urging them to contact State Board members so that the board won't recommend rolling back "efforts to create a universal access to early education system in Vermont".
Baker used the email of the Franklin Northwest Supervisory Union to do her lobbying, by the way.
* * *
COMMENTARY...HARD CHOICES ON EXPANDING PRESCHOOLS
by John McClaughry
In his state of the state message this month, Gov. Jim Douglas observed that last session the legislature "added a provision into the final budget bill that I fear will lead to an unacceptable outcome: adding two more pre-kindergarten grades to the already stressed K-12 education system and putting taxpayers on the hook to fund it." He went on to ask the legislature "to reconsider the decision to further increase the cost of education and the growing tax bills that accompany those costs."
That growing tax bill to fund preschool could eventually run up to $70 million a year, if every 3- and 4-year old in the state signed up for a publicly funded 20 hour a week preschool slot.
And what does society get for this expenditure? Does a universal population of 3- and 4-year olds gain any educational benefits from this taxpayer investment? The plain answer, backed by lots of research, is no. That is to say, by fourth grade researchers can't tell which students had preschool and which started at age 5 in kindergarten.
In Georgia, the state that pioneered universal preschool, a commissioned ten-year study found that there were no lasting cognitive gains from one year of preschool participation. The Congressionally mandated study of Head Start for low-income children found that after preschool children showed significant gains on only six of thirty measures, and those gains were unlikely to persist.
So if there are no lasting educational benefits from a costly universal expansion of the public schools by two more grades, why are so many legislators eager to vote for it? First, "free" preschools are popular with working parents who otherwise would have to pay for day care. Second, two more public school grades means more jobs for more teachers and miscellaneous aides. Third, for a lot of advocates, getting toddlers away from their unqualified parents and into public programs run by people with credentials is a step toward improving society.
Last May the legislature slipped into the FY 2006 budget bill a one-year authorization for school districts to send their preschool bills to the Education Fund for payment. This is the action that Gov. Douglas wants the legislature to reconsider. What could the legislature do to make this more acceptable?
It could limit preschool to "at risk" 3- and 4-year olds, on whom over $20 million a year is already being spent. If preschool has any educational benefit -- a contention much in doubt -- it might possibly help at-risk kids to catch up with their more fortunate peers, something that universal preschool will decidedly not do.
Another approach would be that of Florida: give parents $2500 vouchers that they could cash in at the public, private or religious preschool of their choice. This would cost considerably less than taxpayer financing of unionized, credentialed public preschools. It would at least give the parents some choice, and it would keep alive the private day care businesses that are in mortal peril if "free" universal preschool is enacted.
A third approach would be to give a tax credit, as Arizona does, for contributions to nonprofit scholarship funding organizations (like Vermont SOS) that offer scholarships to needy children to attend the preschool of their parents' choice.
A final approach would be to require an up or down school district vote to continue public preschools after September 1, 2006, or to require that, if continued, the local program be converted into a parental choice model. An interesting variant would be to give the voters the choice between supporting preschools and claiming a pro rata credit against their property tax bills.
Whether or not one believes that preschools have tangible benefits worth the costs to already burdened taxpayers, one thing is clear. Only one act of the legislature ever authorized public schools to spend Education Fund dollars on universal preschools. That was the provision deviously slipped into the FY06 budget bill last May. Unless this legislature acts, that one-year authority for Education Fund preschool spending will expire on June 30.
As Senate appropriations chair Susan Bartlett (D-Lamoille) recently pointed out, public school preschool spending "was in practice, and not in statute." In other words, some school districts have been spending tax dollars on preschools without any statutory authority.
But just because it has become a common practice to spend other people's money without statutory authorization doesn't mean it's legal. It's not. Vermonters should remind their legislators that our constitution requires that "No money shall be drawn out of the Treasury, unless first appropriated by act of legislation."
John McClaughry is President of the Ethan Allen Institute. On the web at: http://www.ethanallen.org.
WHO COVERS EDUCATION IN VERMONT?
We do! Consider a gift to Vermonters for Better Education, the publisher of the weekly Vermont Education Report, Vermont's ONLY continual source of education news. Send donations to: VBE, 170 Church Street, Rutland, Vermont 05701. VBE is a nonprofit organization and contributions are tax-deductible.
* * *
The VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT is published by Vermonters for Better Education 170 Church Street, Rutland, VT 05701, 802.773.5240 Contact VTBetterEd@aol.com for more information.
SubscribeRemove
........