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Early learning is so vital to a child's ultimate ability to read and write that Gov. Jeb Bush has no option but to veto the Legislature's half-hearted attempt at prekindergarten.
Just compare, for a moment, the way in which these lawmakers constructed a learning program for 4-year-olds with the way Florida currently teaches 5-year-olds. In kindergarten classes, children are taught by certified teachers, with college degrees, who help them navigate a variety of activities, including lunch and structured play, over a six-hour period each day. The bill headed for the governor's desk would establish prekindergarten classes that could be led by child-care workers, with no college degree or college experience, in a rush-them-in, rush-them-out three-hour day.
How many parents would accept a kindergarten taught by a trained babysitter?
Lawmakers were being asked this year to fulfill a 2002 constitutional mandate, and they didn't come close. The voters, with the encouragement of Gov. Bush and many legislative leaders, overwhelming approved a universal prekindergarten program that is to be "high quality, free, and delivered according to professionally accepted standards." Somehow, though, lawmakers have translated "high quality" and "professionally accepted standards" to mean cheap and easy.
A task force directed by Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings was emphatic that prekindergarten be a genuine learning experience, and it insisted on teachers with college degrees, small classroom sizes, six-hour days like kindergarten and school accreditation. As Jennings put it: "You get what you pay for. If all we're concerned about is money, we might as well open up a large auditorium and let the children come in."
As governor, Bush has made early reading a priority. Research shows that children who aren't able readers by third grade can encounter significant problems in their educational career. Bush knows the prekindergarten program as constructed by the Legislature this year would be inconsistent with his emphasis and fall short of the standards he and his task force have established. He also knows that the program is not set to start until the fall of 2005, which allows for the possibility of a new legislative team, and a new House speaker, taking a fresh look at the issue.
On Tuesday, Bush told a reporter, "I don't think that bill that ended up passing meets the criteria that we would all want in this state," and he's right. While it would be preferable to start up the program now and have lawmakers strengthen the standards in future years, that's not at all how politics works. If Florida doesn't get it right from the start, then 4-year-olds will be cheated. The governor has said he won't stand for that. Now he has to use his pen to get that message across.