There has been a lot of activity around education reform during the 84th Ledge; both the governor and lieutenant governor have a set of initiatives they are pursuing on this front. While I disagree with many of their initiatives outright, at least one seems to be a step in the right direction, namely the expansion of pre-kindergarten programs. While it could have and should have gone further, the Ledge should pass HB 4.
The bill would require school districts and charter schools with at least 15 eligible students to provide at least a half day pre-kindergarten class (an eligible student is more or less a poor kid that may or not speak English). Districts and charter schools that already offer a pre-kindergarten class could opt into the program for additional funding, but they’d need to modify any parts of their existing program to meet the standards set by HB 4. The standards seem to involve a certificate for teachers, some bit of data collection, “parental engagement”, and some general curriculum requirements. Built into the bill seems a good deal of latitude surrounding said requirements which I imagine is why a good deal of educative entities present in the committee hearing supported it.
$525,024,611, in case you were wondering, is the expected price tag for the biennium. The bill “would make no appropriation” and instead will be squeezing blood out of the Available School Fund (the reader may recall this as the “spendable” portion of the Permanent School Fund). While I’m not thrilled about this choice, no matter where the money comes from, the state should expect a solid return on its investment. Studies show that students which participated in pre-kindergarten were much more likely to have success in school, graduate high school, and earn at least $20k/yr by age 40.
Today the bill was put up on the calendar. We shall see.
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