Statehood or Parenthood

Preschool Education: Where does it belong?

There is a move across the country to have Universal Preschools in the public school systems. Louisiana has a program in place called LA4. It is not intended to be a Universal Preschool. It is meant to serve the at risk or low income children. However, private preschools are being closed all over the state.

Nineteen years ago I obtained my degree in Education, but chose to open my own business so that I could spend those precious years with my own children. When LA4 classes started to open in elementary schools in lower economic areas of the parish (in LA we have parishes), I was told that these Pre-K's would not effect my business and that they were being set up to help those families that couldn't afford private preschool.

Two years later two classes of Pre-K were opened at the elementary school in my neighborhood. My business closed down. I completed my certification in Pre-K, passed the Praxis test to become highly qualified, and went to work for the competitor. Never did I imagine that the actual philosophy of preschool could be so different. I lasted for one month before giving my two week notice. I began to do some research and realized that Universal Preschool was causing controversy with many people.

Through E-mail, I've been in touch with Dawn Hatzer, the Executive Director of the National Child Care Association. The NCCA has a position paper on Universal Preschool. Their stand is a little different from mine, yet I'm in agreement on many issues.

One is the fact that there are many early care and educational systems in the private sector that already exist. The phrase used in the NCCA's position paper is that there is no need to "reinvent" the wheel to provide preschool services. Louisiana's LA4 Preschool Program has received glowing marks and praises through studies and statistics. In a press release from January 2006, Governor Blanco stated, "I believe this is the beginning of the cure for poverty."

Wow! I am not denying that providing developmental activities to children isn't going to improve their abilities. However, the Department of Education did not invent early childhood education. I think our politicians are taking themselves a little too seriously.

I will be comparing and contrasting State Licensed Private Preschools and Louisiana's public preschool program(LA4). I'm trying to give parents background information so that they will begin to compare and contrast private and public preschools in their states.

The LA4 program is created at the state level and is the same throughout every school. The people who are deciding these children's schedules and lessons are basing their decisions on research or statistics and not on the actual children.

The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale

The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) is used to evaluate each preschool classroom. There are forty-three items used in the inspection, with each one receiving a score from one to seven. Every LA4 classroom throughout the state must have the same designated furniture regardless of the size of the room.

My classroom was so cluttered with furniture, the children could hardly move. I felt smothered. Every room was required to have a net TV on a cart, two computers, chairs and tables for twenty children, a music center with the designated items, a reading center with a certain percentage of multicultural books, a dramatic play center with a certain percentage of multicultural items, and a science center in which an experiment must be done every two weeks.

When the inspector came to your classroom, she checked for a display of the children's original artwork. Ditto or color sheets could not be used. A 3-D art project should also be on display when the inspector arrived. Are we having fun yet? ECERS also calls for a rigid schedule which took me hours to figure out. Certain centers had to be available for a "substantial part of the day," based on the number of hours in the school day.

Our objectives in our lesson plans had to be met through the children's time in the centers. For instance, if the math skill for the week was counting objects one to five, the children were expected to go to the Math Center and count out five beads and put them on a string and nothing else.

Cleanliness is a major factor when dealing with young children. The LA4 teachers were free to clean, but it had to be after school on their own time. Bleach was not allowed to be used anywhere in the school. A janitor cleaned the school but did not clean the Pre-K classroom according to State Health Standards. Children shared cubbies, and mats were stacked one on top of the other. Many Departments of Education do not have policies or procedures for evaluating environments for children under five. Where are the health standards?

Funding Issues

The funding for LA4 is based on the children's attendance. If a child misses more than three days throughout the whole school year, without a doctor's written excuse, they are removed from the program and replaced with the next child on the list. The philosophy of the program, as it was told to me, is that if a child is sick enough to stay home, they are sick enough to go to the doctor.

Funding also plays a part in job security for the teacher. In LA4 there must be twenty children in a classroom for that school to receive funding. To be accepted into the program, parents are to meet certain income restrictions. However, I have heard teachers say, that if they didn't have enough students in their class, they would call parents that had previously been denied enrollment, tell them to reapply and lie about their income. This way the child could be accepted into the program and the teacher could have her quota and keep her job. LA4 is not just for the low income. They are stealing from the private sector.

The NCCA is also concerned that four year olds are placed in an environment that was originally set up for older children. In my LA4 class, the children had to walk down the hall with arms folded the same as the six grade children.

In the cafeteria, we were not allowed to give them their plates. They had to carry them alone. Supposedly this was going to make them grow up. They were eating with children from all grades. They were never allowed to talk. The food was not age appropriate.

I remember one instance when an unidentified piece of chicken was served to the children. The children, being accustomed to having boneless chicken, picked it up and took a bite. When the first child pulled a bone from his mouth and handed it to me, my aide and I panically started pulling chicken out of children's mouths. Where are the regulations on food preparation for four year olds?

The last issue I would like to address is the one that I consider to have the most long term effects. It deals with the caring and nurturing part of preschool children. With the increase in public preschool, the Universities have made changes to their early childhood field of study. LA4 requires a certified teacher in the classroom.

In Louisiana Universities, Early Childhood Education has been moved into the Department of Education. It was originally placed under the Human Resources Department with field work being done in private preschools or daycares. With these changes, college students are being trained to be classroom teachers. This training for classroom teachers centers more on academic and discipline strategies.

The NCCA states that teacher education is not the only way to evaluate a good preschool teacher. They must also have the skills to meet all the needs of young children. Even if teachers are by nature, compassionate people, schedules, curriculum guides and numerous other standards keep them from being focused on the children's emotional needs.

Let's take a look at the same issues in a Louisiana State Licensed Private Preschool. These centers are licensed through the Department of Social Services(DSS). They are regulated by the Bureau of Licensing, Department of Health and Hospitals(DHH) and the State Fire Marshal. The Bureau of Licensing has a booklet of standards that every center is given, outlining exactly what is expected in terms of your center's environment.

The Director of the center is free to write her own preschool program and schedule to suit the needs of the children. For example, my preschool was predominately rural children. It would be unrealistic to assume that children in my area would learn in the same manner that a child from a large city, such as New Orleans, would learn. Their schemas are very diverse and should be taught based on their background knowledge. DSS recognizes this by allowing each center to be unique while at the same time regulating the safety of the children. Learning cannot be bought in a box or planned by people miles away. It must be planned with specific children in mind.

The State Department of Health and Hospitals makes inspections twice a year. They are very specific about how food is handled and prepared. Cubbies and hooks are to be twelve inches apart and mats or cots are to be eighteen inches apart to prevent the spread of germs. Countertops, tables and water fountains are to be bleached daily, bathrooms are to be cleaned twice a day and toys are to be bleached weekly. Cleanliness is a major source of pride among private preschools.

Each Director of a private center has the freedom to create their own policies on attendance. My policies included a half-day program as well as a whole day part time program. There are many reasons that four year olds miss preschool. There are times when children are tired from a bad night's sleep and will stay home to rest. There are times when family comes in from out of town to visit or there are times when Grandma may want to spend the day with the child. These are very important moments that nurture preschoolers' needs. Parents should never be pressured into sending a four year old to school everyday.

To summarize, a State Licensed Preschool is regulated by the State according to the health and safety of the children. However, each center is allowed to have its own unique philosophy. Parents have options of choosing the center that matches their child's home life. Parents and Preschools work as partners in creating the most nurturing, caring and developmentally appropriate environment for children.

Public preschools may provide impressive statistics of academics, but will also create a society of children that are hardened by not being able to develop at their own emotional level. They will have learned how to be "grown up" by using survival of the fittest tactics. Parents are allowing legislators to decide the kind of environment their four year old will be exposed to.

I would just like parents to stop and think about certain questions. Shouldn't all four year olds in a state be cared for under the same regulations from the same agencies? What are the attendance policies? Is the teacher free to plan her own schedule and activities? Has the teacher had any experience "caring" for children as opposed to only teaching experience? Please, just ask the questions. Don't lose that last precious year with your child without getting the information you need to make an appropriate decision.

About the Author

Mary Jo Smith hails from Louisiana. She is a certified, highly qualified, Pre-K through third grade teacher. Mary Jo ran a State Licensed Private Preschool for nineteen years. She is married with two sons, ages seventeen and fifteen and a daughter, age eleven. Mrs. Smith hopes to give parents background information when deciding between public or private preschool.