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Obama Pledge Stirs Hope in Early Education
New York Times ^ | December 16, 2008 | Sam Dillon

Posted on 12/21/2008 7:25:20 AM PST by reaganaut1

[T]he $10 billion Mr. Obama has pledged for early childhood education would amount to the largest new federal initiative for young children since Head Start began in 1965. Now, Head Start is a $7 billion federal program serving about 900,000 preschoolers.

“People are absolutely ecstatic,” said Cornelia Grumman, executive director of the First Five Years Fund, an advocacy group. “Some people seem to think the Great Society is upon us again.”

...

Now that new initiatives seem likely, experts are debating how best to improve America’s early childhood system, which they call fantastically fragmented, unconscionably underfinanced and bureaucratically bewildering. Some hesitate to use the word “system” at all.

“It’s a patchwork quilt, a tossed salad, a nonsystem,” said Libby Doggett, executive director of Pre-K Now, a group that presses for universal, publicly financed prekindergarten.

There are federal and state, public and private, for-profit and nonprofit programs. Some unfold in public school classrooms, others in storefront day care centers, churches or Y.M.C.A.’s, and still others in tiny centers run out of private homes.

“California has 22 different funding streams for child care and preschool, and that mirrors the crazy labyrinth of funding sources coming out of Washington,” said Bruce Fuller, an education professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who is the author of “Standardized Childhood: The Political and Cultural Struggle Over Early Education.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: agenda; bhoeducation; earlychildhood; ece; education; headstart; homeschooling; preschool; universalpreschool
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The reason preschool in the U.S. is a "patchwork quilt" or "nonsystem" is that kids have different needs and their parents have varying attitudes toward preschool (which is often primarily daycare). Some 3-year-olds may thrive in preschool, but other 3yo should be at home. Some mothers work full time, but many others work part time or stay at home because they want to care for and educate their children themselves. Taxpayer-funded "free" preschool will do nothing for families that want to keep their young children at home. (Of course, SAHMs *do* take their kids to libraries, playgrounds, etc.) Liberals think the raising of young children should be managed by the government.

The article mentions a woman whose two kids attend an $18K per year preschool funded by the government and foundations. Gold-plated preschools for poor children will cause other parents, especially mothers, to wonder if they are suckers for working.

1 posted on 12/21/2008 7:25:20 AM PST by reaganaut1
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To: reaganaut1

More indoctrination.

Will not solve nor even dent the real problems with US education.


2 posted on 12/21/2008 7:27:52 AM PST by Bon mots
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To: reaganaut1

“Some people seem to think the Great Society is upon us again.”

yet the results of Project Follow Through will still be ignored.
http://www.zigsite.com/for_readers_not-familar_with_project_follow_through.html


3 posted on 12/21/2008 7:28:37 AM PST by ari-freedom (The 'Ch' in Chanuka is like the Spanish 'j')
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To: reaganaut1

Obama has already demonstrated how to solve the school problem with his own children.

Don’t send them to stupid public skoolz.
Pay $50,000.00 per year for them to be educated by white people in a private school.

School choice for the rich.
The poor get institutionalized in substandard violent cess-schools.


4 posted on 12/21/2008 7:29:21 AM PST by Bon mots
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To: reaganaut1

May I be so bold as to suggest people get an education or trade, get a job, earn money, get married, have children and then PAY to have them enrolled in a school or stay at home and take care of them yourself! Liberals are puke!


5 posted on 12/21/2008 7:29:24 AM PST by Doc Savage ("Are you saying Jesus can't hit a curve ball? - Harris to Cerrano - Major League)
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To: reaganaut1
HOPE!!! HOPE!!!! CHANGE!!!! CHANGE!!!! MORE HOPE!!! MORE CHANGE!!! Definition: more taxes, more government control of our lives, liberalism, socialism (which is really just a milder buzz word for COMMUNISM.)
6 posted on 12/21/2008 7:29:30 AM PST by RetiredArmy (Great patriotic stuff at www.patriotstore.us.)
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To: reaganaut1

“Some people seem to think the Great Society is upon us again.” ...
:::::::::
It is all BULL EXCREMENT. This is nothing but MORE SOCIALIST INDOCTRINATION lies. Obama, and his oppressive socialist agenda remain a HUGE threat to a free America.


7 posted on 12/21/2008 7:30:37 AM PST by EagleUSA
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To: RetiredArmy

“...the Great Society is upon us again...” Who said there was no reason for Christmas cheer this year, huh?


8 posted on 12/21/2008 7:32:05 AM PST by Oldpuppymax (AGENDA OF THE LEFT EXPOSED)
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To: reaganaut1

So far all the money that we the people have given to the teachers union has caused the schools to go down not up. So this will be another bunch of money that will be used to get votes for the left and ruin out nation as they want.


9 posted on 12/21/2008 7:32:52 AM PST by YOUGOTIT (The Greatest Threat to our Security is the Royal 100 Club)
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To: reaganaut1

GREAT..does this mean that kids will learn, at an even earlier age, how to wear their pants around their thighs? /s (but just barely)


10 posted on 12/21/2008 7:33:06 AM PST by GeorgiaDawg32 (A democrat will break your leg, then hand you a crutch and take credit for your being able to walk.)
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To: reaganaut1

In my region, Head Start and these “early childhood” programs are nothing more than free daycare so that Momma can make more babies without the children getting in the way.


11 posted on 12/21/2008 7:33:45 AM PST by JustaDumbBlonde (America: Home of the Free Because of the Brave)
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To: Doc Savage

May I be so bold as to suggest people get an education

they think they are supporting education by focusing on pre-k. Never mind the fact that they aren’t really learning anything...it’s just the fact that they are in an institution that matters to them.


12 posted on 12/21/2008 7:33:51 AM PST by ari-freedom (The 'Ch' in Chanuka is like the Spanish 'j')
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To: Bon mots

Will not solve nor even dent the real problems with US education.
::::::
True — because the real problems are the incompetence and liberal socialist agenda of academia in general. And TOLERANCE thereof. The liberals keep using the excuse of money as the problem, but we know better. Some of the least funded schools have the best teaching results due to good management and insistence on teachers’ standards.

This is just more of the same old tired liberal crap — schools are for indoctrination, not education.


13 posted on 12/21/2008 7:34:15 AM PST by EagleUSA
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To: reaganaut1

The sole purpose of these programs is to allow the state to indoctinate our children against capitalism and for socialism at an early age.

Conservatives have lost the battle because we allow and fund these programs.

Which are unconstitutional, not that the constitution matters any longer.


14 posted on 12/21/2008 7:35:31 AM PST by stockpirate (Give me liberty or give me some one else's earnings. Redistribute earnings!)
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To: Bon mots

Washington DC’s voucher program sends kids to Sidwell Friends, the private school that Obama’s children will attend. I wonder if that will make a difference in Obama’s thinking about vouchers for poor kids.


15 posted on 12/21/2008 7:36:28 AM PST by goldi
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To: reaganaut1

Gee, I have an idea. Take the yokes off the parents; hand their children back to them to raise; return the money you are stealing from them and shut and stay the you know what away from them.


16 posted on 12/21/2008 7:38:10 AM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote.)
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To: reaganaut1

Let the indocrtination begin.


17 posted on 12/21/2008 7:42:12 AM PST by HondaCRF450
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To: EagleUSA

The biggest and most important reason they are getting younger and younger children out of their mothers care and into the states care is that it is easier to indoctrinate them to the socialist mentality the younger they start.

If early education worked, we should have absolute geniuses on our hands by now! Take a look around at our “head start” kids, all grown up and you have nothing but barack voters.

All conservatives should band together and find a way to get their kids out of public schools. Work in a cooperative with other like minded parents in your area and split up the work load, but get your kids out asap!! We are way smarter than the train wreck, lets start by saving the next generation now!


18 posted on 12/21/2008 7:42:23 AM PST by wombtotomb (since its "above his paygrade", why can't we err on the side of caution about when life begins?)
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To: reaganaut1

>>>Now, Head Start is a $7 billion federal program serving about 900,000 preschoolers<<<

Thats $7800.00 PER CHILD per year. WORTHLESS WASTE


19 posted on 12/21/2008 7:47:17 AM PST by hamburglar (The result of spreading the wealth around is spreading unemployment around.)
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To: reaganaut1
Why would government want to control what our kids are taught. Hint, they may actually learn to think:

8th grade exam late 1800’s Geography (Time, one hour)

1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?

2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?

3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?

4. Describe the mountains of North America.

5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall & Orinoco.

6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.

7. Name all the republics of Europeand give the capital of each.

8. Why is the Atlantic Coastcolder than the Pacific in the same latitude?

9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.

10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.

20 posted on 12/21/2008 7:50:01 AM PST by Las Vegas Ron (The tree of liberty is getting mighty dry)
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