A first step? Let's hope so

Some legislators say the state's new prekindergarten program is just square one. Let's hope they mean it because children deserve better.

Florida will offer prekindergarten classes next fall to all 4-year-olds, a momentous event for a state not generally recognized for its education exploits. Whether this new endeavor will bring distinction or disdain, though, still depends on a Legislature that seems conflicted.

Lawmakers can take some pride in the relative harmony with which they met, debated and adopted a prekindergarten plan last week. But those plaudits are for the style, not the substance, of their work. By the admission of its sponsors, the pre-K plan is only a first step. For children to receive the kind of meaningful early learning experience that voters approved in 2002, lawmakers will have to summon the resolve to go further.

The easiest way to ensure quality is to follow the kindergarten model, with certified teachers instructing children for six-hour days in public school buildings over which the state has direct control. But the same lawmakers who said that most public schools lack space to offer pre-K classes also offered no plan to build capacity for future years. In fact, the pre-K plan all but disqualifies public schools in urban counties, denying them eligibility if they don't meet class size goals for K-12. At the same time, the plan requires that public schools offer a summer pre-K program.

The summer program is part of the pre-K contradiction. For summer, the public schools would be required to use certified teachers and offer a full day of instruction. For the fall, though, the participating private day care centers would need only to employ a child care worker and serve students three hours a day.

Whether the prekindergarten classes are held in public or private settings, the research is abundantly clear that the quality of the teacher, the length of the instructional day and the size of the class are crucial. Unfortunately, Florida's plan fails on two of the three. It also doesn't help that lawmakers provided so little oversight for the private network on which the state will rely. The constitutionality of publicly funded religious instruction is but one complication. As Sen. Jim King, the chamber's former president, noted, the state already faces multiple investigations into financial fraud related to two vouchers programs that also have few controls.

What parents want most next fall is a highly qualified teacher, but the debate last week offered some unsatisfying clues about whether that will ever happen. The pre-K bill sets an "aspirational goal" of certified teachers by 2013. But when Rep. Loranne Ausley, D-Tallahassee, tried to convert the goal into a requirement, she was offered a revealing argument. Lawmakers have resisted the requirement for college degrees in the past because they claimed there were not enough teachers to fill the need. But in response to Ausley's amendment on the House floor, Rep. Dudley Goodlette, R-Naples, offered an entirely different rationale.

"This," said Goodlette, the House pre-K sponsor, "is a very costly amendment."

This also defines the conflict in the Capitol. Lawmakers apparently are willing to provide competent teachers only if they will work cheap. They are willing to provide quality pre-kindergarten only at cut-rate prices. That's not likely to happen. Many lawmakers understand that, despite the shortcomings of the plan they approved. If the new pre-K plan is indeed only a first step, then the next one will require that lawmakers open the state's wallet. Four-year-olds are well worth the investment.

[Last modified December 19, 2004, 00:15:16]