When legislators meet for their special session next month, they shouldn't let "competing interests" interfere with the interests of Florida's 4-year-olds.
Published November 10, 2004
Four-year-olds were among the casualties of this year's political meltdown in Tallahassee, but the new Legislature has a chance to do right by them. Unfortunately, as a special session approaches, there remains entirely too much equivocating about prekindergarten in Florida.
"Nobody wants their ox gored," Rep. Kevin Ambler, R-Tampa, is quoted as having told the Children's Board of Hillsborough on Saturday. "There are plenty of competing interests."
The "competing interests" to which Ambler refers are primarily the businesses that want to profit from this voter initiative. Some of them are private day care centers that provide little more than babysitting, yet they still want a piece of the state's pre-K action. They don't want to provide the kind of quality that voters mandated with universal prekindergarten. They don't want to pay for teachers with college degrees. They may not have or want to pay for enough teachers to assure there is one adult for every 10 children. They don't have or want any kind of accreditation.
But they do want the state's money and its 4-year-old clients.
Gov. Jeb Bush, to his credit, vetoed the embarrassing bill that passed out of the Legislature earlier this year. The bill would have established a new prekindergarten, to begin next fall, with virtually no standards, either for teachers or class sizes or credentials. The prekindergarten day itself had been whittled down to a mere three hours, as lawmakers maneuvered to see how much money they save by offering the economy version of pre-K.
That, of course, is contrary to the expressed wishes of parents and voters, and a new survey sponsored by three children's groups underscores the point. In the poll, nearly two-thirds of likely users say they want a six-hour day with national-quality standards of instruction. The constitutional amendment itself calls specifically for "high quality."
Last year, a task force led by Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings laid out a consensus approach that is similar to kindergarten: teachers with degrees; six-hour days, 10-to-1 student-teacher ratios. But lawmakers were so eager to be cheap they listened only to those who wanted less. Next month, lawmakers will have a second chance with 4-year-olds. They are scheduled for a special session to deal with pre-K and hurricane issues, and they may even be greeted with the prospect of an entirely new pot of money from which to finance prekindergarten. The slot machines that voters authorized for Broward and Miami-Dade, still to be approved separately by voters in those counties, could raise a projected $438-million annually.
Prekindergarten is about giving every child a running start on their education, about capturing their thinking and imagination at a time when research shows it matters most. Those legislators who are trying to lower expectations by offering two-tiered pre-K (abbreviated day for all students followed by after-care for poor ones) or pre-K designed to maximize corporate profits are saying that children's interests simply can't compete. To date, at least, "competing interests" has been legislative code for selling out children.
