Free Republic

Did you go to preschool? When I was growing up, few kids did. But now there is a new movement that says every child in America should have a chance to start school before kindergarten -- at taxpayer expense. It's part of President Obama's massive spending plans. His "stimulus" bill includes an Early Learning Challenge Grant to encourage states to "Develop a cutting-edge plan to raise the quality of your early learning programs" (http://tinyurl.com/cv6s23). It's a popular idea. Sixty-seven percent of Americans favor universal pre-K funded by the government. But I doubt that most Americans have thought it through. Mia...

NEWTON — Five-year-old Kyra Randazzo proudly held up her newest creations. "I made two cranes, my mom made one," she said, smiling and showing off two blue origami paper cranes she had just crafted. Kyra was one of the students at Mt. Ida College's Longfellow Preschool in Newton who spent yesterday morning with their parents making origami cranes. In total, the students will make 1,000 paper birds the school plans to send to the White House on the first day of spring as a goodwill gesture to President Barack Obama and his family. The crane is considered in Japanese culture...

[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...

LONDON (AP) — It's a controversial idea in a land known for prudishness about sex — teaching kids as young as 5 about the birds and bees. But with one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in Europe, the British government is bringing sex education to all schools in England — including kindergartens. While countries like France, Holland and China already require sex education, few places demand that it be introduced at such a young age. "It's vital that this information doesn't come from playground rumor or the mixed messages from the media about sex," Schools Minister Jim Knight said...

Jim Lehrer asked a question about how the respective candidates would alter their agenda as President in the light of the huge financial obligation of the bailout. Obama waffled about various things but then said "I'd still like to expand early education". "Expand early eduction" ?? What does he actually mean by that, and why did single it out of all the items on his agenda? Tonight he sent a little signal to his master that he was still the obedient servant. Here's a clue. The Chicago Annenberg Challenge that he chaired in the mid 90's was a scheme to...

One of the most dramatic changes in American life in the years since World War II involves the way we raise our children. We used to do it ourselves. Now, convinced we have better things to do, many of us leave the job to others. Encouraging this flight from parenthood, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has proposed what he calls his "Zero to Five" plan. It is a collection of programs aimed at getting the government involved in the raising of your children from the moment they are born. "The first part of my plan...

No Kindergarten Left Behind by: Malcolm A. Kline, September 06, 2007 Once again, Republican officials have helped to pave the way for a pet project of the overwhelmingly left-wing educational establishment—all-day kindergarten. Although the research on its benefits may be scant, several large Virginia counties are going full-speed, or as completely as they can, ahead with it. “For the first time, all kindergarten students in Prince William County will have as much class time as older students,” staff writer Maria Glod reported in The Washington Post on September 4, 2007. “ Fairfax County is adding full-day kindergarten in 21 schools,...

Massive Study Finds Pre-School and Early Child Education Initiatives Show No Benefit Other studies found marked negative effects from preschool including brain chemistry damage, aggression, negative social and emotional development, illness By John-Henry Westen LONDON, August 31, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A six year comparison of almost 35,000 children has shown that there has been no change in developmental levels of pupils entering primary school in this period, despite the introduction of several new early years' initiatives over the past decade, new research from Durham University's Curriculum, Evaluation and Management (CEM) Centre reveals. The research, presented Tuesday at the biennial European...

Universal preschool sounds like a political winner but families lose out. Policymakers talk about "fiscal responsibility," but few put that principle into action. Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney deserves applause for doing just that by vetoing a universal preschool bill last week. It's easy to see why many politicians view universal preschool as a political winner. Voters picture smiling four-year-olds heading off to begin a life-time of learning. Presumably, the extra year of school will give these children a leg up. While proponents boast that preschool has a dramatic affect on student outcomes, there is scant evidence to support this claim....

ROLLING MEADOWS, IL - Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed legislation Tuesday that makes every 3- and 4-year-old in Illinois eligible for state-subsidized preschool. The catch: There's money for only about 10,000 of the neediest children, at least for now. Blagojevich activated the $45 million first phase of his "Preschool for All" program surrounded by childhood-development advocates and lawmakers who helped move the measure through the General Assembly. The measure's proponents say broadening access to preschool will pay dividends in the future. "It's those precious years between 3 and 5 when kids learn the most," Blagojevich said during a news conference at...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is opposing a June ballot initiative promoted by director Rob Reiner that would raise income taxes on the rich to pay for universal preschool, his campaign team said Wednesday. "Put simply, the governor does not support tax increases and is opposed to Proposition 82 because it will raise taxes," said his communications director, Katie Levinson. Until now, Schwarzenegger has avoided definitive statements on Proposition 82, an initiative that is similar to an after-school measure he spearheaded in 2002 for after-school programs. Voters approved that measure and it is set to be funded for the first...

Do you remember Chuck Quackenbush? He was the insurance commissioner who lost his job because he used fines that he collected from insurance companies to buy television commercials to promote his political career. It was a huge scandal at the time, and Quackenbush, who was a colleague of mine in the Assembly, left his job in disgrace, having been run out of office by Legislative Democrats for abusing state money. Another boondoggle is brewing, only this time Legislative Democrats are strangely silent. A few years ago, Rob Reiner (“Meathead” from the old television series, “All in the Family”) sponsored an...

INDIANAPOLIS -- A report by a national group pushing for early childhood education for all American children blames Gov. Mitch Daniels for Indiana's lack of support for such programs. The report released Friday by Washington-based Pre-K Now details the gains and losses for pre-kindergarten programs nationwide in 2005, and contends that Daniels has stalled any progress made in previous years in establishing early-childhood education in Indiana. "Indiana is one of only nine states that provide no state funding for pre-k or Head Start, and Governor Mitch Daniels has not yet addressed this serious neglect," the report states. Daniels said Friday...

Posted on Sun, Feb. 26, 2006 Preschool reform measure won't close learning gap for poorBy Bruce Fuller Like every would-be savior in the annals of school reform, Reiner promises miraculous results from his plan to spend $23 billion in the coming decade for preschool. Just over 64 percent of California's half-million 4-year-olds already attend a preschool center... Reiner's ``universal'' program would boost the enrollment rate only to 70 percent......by just 6 percent, or 32,000 4-year-olds statewide, at a cost of $2.3 billion a year.We are learning empirically that gains experienced by poor children who attend preschool fade by third...

Los Angeles Times: “Accountability for beginners” “When Californians approved Proposition 10 eight years ago by a margin of exactly one percentage point, they agreed to tax cigarettes a half dollar a pack to fund a variety of children’s programs.“What they probably didn’t realize is that they also created an unelected government agency controlled by Rob Reiner, and that he would spend their millions, against the spirit if not the letter of the law, on campaign propaganda aimed at influencing their votes.“As detailed Monday by Times staff writer Dan Morain, Reiner’s First 5 California Children and Families Commission, which is appointed...

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Hollywood director Rob Reiner denied any wrongdoing Thursday in response to recent scrutiny about the potential misuse of taxpayer funds for a June ballot initiative he is spearheading. Reiner, who heads the state's First 5 California Children and Families Commission he helped create, is now leading a campaign for a ballot initiative that would establish a state constitutional right to preschool for all 4-year-olds and raise income taxes for wealthier households to fund a preschool program. A Los Angeles Times story earlier this week detailed, however, how the commission spent $23 million on ads to...

Groups consider preschool measure REINER TO PROMOTE HIS INITIATIVE IN S.J. Rob Reiner returns to San Jose on Thursday to pitch Proposition 82, his Preschool for All Act, as two key Silicon Valley business groups wrangle over whether to endorse the plan to provide a free voluntary year of preschool to all 4-year-olds in the state. The tech-heavy Silicon Valley Leadership Group, which met with Reiner in mid-December, and the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce have yet to weigh in on the complex initiative, which goes before voters statewide June 6. In recent weeks, a variety of opponents...