TALLAHASSEE - A bill that both Republican Gov. Jeb Bush and many Democratic legislators fear would water down standards for a constitutionally required prekindergarten program moved through the House Education Committee on Wednesday.
The Republican-dominated panel voted 21-8, largely along party lines, to move the bill (HB 821) after sometimes testy maneuvering Democrats claimed was designed to muzzle them.
"The bottom line is this bill has not one iota of quality. ... I don't really stand with Gov. Bush on a lot of things, but I'm absolutely supportive of his efforts (on prekindergarten)," said Rep. Loranne Ausley, D-Tallahassee.
Major differences between a pre-K proposal approved by the state Board of Education last month and the amended measure sponsored by Rep. Gus Barreiro, R-Miami, include the number of hours 4-year-olds would spend in school, the education and training required for pre-K teachers, the pupil-teacher ratio, and which state agency should run the program.
The Board of Education's plan calls for the state to pay for a core curriculum that lasts four hours a day for 180 days, or 720 hours. The House bill would call for as little as 540 hours of pre-K class time spread over 180 school days.
The board wanted a pupil-teacher ratio of 10 to 1; the House bill would allow up to 18 to 1.
The House proposal assigns key oversight responsibilities to the Agency for Workforce Innovation, but many of the service providers argued Wednesday that the Department of Education is a more suitable administrative choice - something Bush also favors.
At the outset, one of the classroom supervisors would have to be certified by the Department of Children and Families with a minimum of 120 hours of early childhood training, offered at many community colleges. The original recommendations would require a two-year associate's degree within five years of startup and a four-year teaching degree by 2012.
The measure next goes to the House Appropriations Committee. The Senate has yet to formulate its proposal.
The constitutional amendment passed with 59 percent of the vote in 2002 provides for free "high-quality" prekindergarten to 4-year-olds starting in 2005. Officials estimate that 140,000 children - about 70 percent of all eligible 4-year-olds - may sign up for the voluntary program. The startup cost is estimated at $262-million.
