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'Meathead' Is at It Again [CA bill could regulate Montessori pre-schools out of existence]
opinionjournal.com ^ | December 11, 2005 | SHIKHA DALMIA AND LISA SNELL

Posted on 12/11/2005 12:17:37 PM PST by grundle

Movie director turned child advocate Rob Reiner recently acquired a million signatures to put his Preschool for All initiative on the California ballot next June, his second attempt to launch a "universal" preschool program.

The real victims would be low- to middle-income women who run nearly all private early-care centers that comprise 70% of California's child-care industry. The onerous credentialing requirements and union mandates that the initiative would trigger would devastate the industry's entrepreneurs without improving instruction one iota.

Consider Cynthia Leahy, founder of Montessori Schools of Fremont. She started her first center 30 years ago in a small Sunday school with nothing except her Montessori training and her "sweat equity," she says. From these humble beginnings, she has created a thriving little Montessori empire consisting of five schools catering to 400 kids of all age groups from infants to high-schoolers. She employs 68 people, 80% of whom are minorities, a reflection of the predominantly nonwhite, professional, immigrant community that is so typical of Silicon Valley. But she fears that the Reiner initiative would make it impossible for private Montessori schools to survive and throw her life's work into jeopardy--not to mention the livelihood of her staff.

The initiative would require all preschool teachers to obtain both a bachelor's degree and a one-year certificate in early childhood development by 2014. All of Ms. Leahy's teachers already have bachelor's and even master's degrees, followed by a very intense training in the Montessori method. Asking these teachers to spend thousands of dollars to return to school for a certificate that is of zero value in their classrooms is ridiculous. Ms. Leahy fears that this would prompt moms on her staff to quit along with others who are close to retirement, leaving her with a disproportionate number of younger, inexperienced teachers.

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Extended News; Government; Miscellaneous; US: California
KEYWORDS: california; earlychildhood; education; educrats; incometax; montessori; montessorischools; preschool; reiner; robreiner; schools; taxes; universalpreschool
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I attended a Monstessori school in Pennsylvania while I was between the ages of 2 and 12. I find this California bill to be very scary.
1 posted on 12/11/2005 12:17:39 PM PST by grundle
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To: grundle

Once a MeatHead always a Meathead!


2 posted on 12/11/2005 12:19:21 PM PST by TexasCajun
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To: grundle
It's the Leftists seeking to indoctrinate kids at an even earlier age.

The Democrats are operating on a flawed premise that preschool gives kids a leg up on achieving in later life. What they forget to notice is that parents who typically send their kids to preschool actually give a damn about their kids.

Naturally, the Leftists discount parental involvement as having any significance at all. They just think that the solution is to blow more taxpayer dollars and push all the underachievers into preschool to drag all the overachievers down...just like they do in the abysmal public schools in the People's Republic of Kalifornia.

3 posted on 12/11/2005 12:20:34 PM PST by Prime Choice (We are RepubliCANs, not RepubliCAN'Ts.)
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To: grundle

These people would have fit in well in 1930's Russia.


4 posted on 12/11/2005 12:21:13 PM PST by HereInTheHeartland (Never bring a knife to a gun fight, or a Democrat to do serious work...)
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To: grundle

President Pinko, Aaarrrrhhh &The Meathead.

5 posted on 12/11/2005 12:25:40 PM PST by M. Espinola (Freedom is never free)
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To: grundle
Meathead's measure is and was never about education or opportunities for children.

It was and is ONLY about taking even more money from taxpayers and driving out all competition while doing so.

The commericals for this initiative are as truthful as the stem cell commercials were, by the way.

6 posted on 12/11/2005 12:26:43 PM PST by Lizavetta
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To: Prime Choice

Shame, I liked his father. A talanted funny man that passed none of those traits to his son.


7 posted on 12/11/2005 12:27:08 PM PST by ncountylee (Dead terrorists smell like victory)
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To: HereInTheHeartland
"These people would have fit in well in 1930's Russia."

1939 they would have really loved, The Soviet-Nazi Pact.

8 posted on 12/11/2005 12:28:19 PM PST by M. Espinola (Freedom is never free)
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To: grundle

I know a woman with two small kids who started her own home-based daycare business so she could stay at home with them and support herself without welfare when her ex flaked out on them. Meathead wants to put her out of business, force her to send her kids to a unionized daycare center and go back to work. Or go on welfare. Liberal socialist compassion strikes again.


9 posted on 12/11/2005 12:31:16 PM PST by Hugin
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To: grundle
This reminds me of the California no-smoking law that passed last decade.

Before the law passed, there were restaurants and other establishments that had become nonsmoking to specifically target the nonsmoking crowd. (a marketing decision).

After the law passed, the smoking police sent all establishments a nonsmoking kit (no smoking signs, and other legal posting items, etc.) all for a FEE!

I don't recall the details but I do recall the outrage of a previous nonsmoking business being forced to pay the state fees for doing what it did any way.
10 posted on 12/11/2005 12:37:08 PM PST by GoforBroke
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To: grundle

This bill is an attempt to extend the reach of the educational establishment, and deprive yet another class of people of the right to make a living.

The bill should be challenged as an attack on equal protection, since it gives preference in employment to a small group (holders of a degree and/or educational certificate).

The federal government is prohibited by the constitution from creating any kind of noble class. This provision has been systematically violated in the area of "life estates" -- privileges and titles granted for the duration of an individual's life, in the form of professional certifications, licenses and designations.

We should pull the plug on all educational-certificate-based restrictions on employment, in favor of skills-based qualifying exams.

This particular attempt to reduce the people's right to earn a living is just the latest round in a long war, with the education industry and big-statists on one side, and we-the-people on the other. We-the-people must win.


11 posted on 12/11/2005 12:45:57 PM PST by Tax Government (Support the Ann Coulter Act of 2006. No free speech at colleges ==> no fed funds.)
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To: grundle

So what this really amounts to is that the taxpayers will start paying the babysitters and pre-schoolers will already know how to put a condom on a cucumber before starting kindergarten. Ya gotta love those "universal" Commies.


12 posted on 12/11/2005 12:47:19 PM PST by FlingWingFlyer (We did not lose in Vietnam. We left.)
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To: grundle
My older son attended a Montessori preschool for a while. After observing the school for a while my opinion of Montessori declined. IIRC the teaching "method" consisted of having shelves containing toys, games, etc. assigned to individual trays. The kids were taught to fetch a tray, play with its contents, and put it back on the shelf. There seemed to be less interaction among the kids and with the teacher than at other schools. My son didn't seem happy there and I took him out.

All of Ms. Leahy's teachers already have bachelor's and even master's degrees, followed by a very intense training in the Montessori method.

One Montessori teacher told me that she decided to go into that type of teaching when she found out that the training only lasted 6 weeks.

13 posted on 12/11/2005 12:48:20 PM PST by wideminded
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To: grundle
I know nothing about Montessori but I have heard nothing but good things about it.....The bad thing about CA is there are too many big names that are ignorant leftists getting face time with the press....CA is self destructing
14 posted on 12/11/2005 12:51:34 PM PST by Kimmers
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To: grundle

If this is like the previous time Meathead tried this, hidden in the bill is a provision that would REQUIRE all children to attend an approved preschool, and the tax measures to pay for it.

The first effort also included a new beauracracy that was accountable to no-one, that was free to spend the pre-shool money any way they saw fit.


15 posted on 12/11/2005 12:56:49 PM PST by jimtorr
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To: grundle

"The initiative would impose a 1.7% income tax on couples making over $800,000 a year ($400,000 for individuals) to offer three hours of free preschool for all the state's 4-year-olds.

This soak-the-rich scheme would put $2.3 billion into the state's coffers. But the people most dreading Mr. Reiner's latest foray are not the superrich, who would no doubt find ways to dodge--by moving out of the state if necessary--what would effectively be a 19% increase in their tax rate. The real victims would be low- to middle-income women who run nearly all private early-care centers that comprise 70% of California's child-care industry. The onerous credentialing requirements and union mandates that the initiative would trigger would devastate the industry's entrepreneurs without improving instruction one iota. "

===

More taxes, more union control, less freedom for CA's people and children.



16 posted on 12/11/2005 12:58:53 PM PST by FairOpinion
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To: calcowgirl; doug from upland; BurbankKarl
Meathead up to no good alert.
17 posted on 12/11/2005 1:03:56 PM PST by newzjunkey (FOUR-time murderer & Crips gang-founder Tookie Williams *must* be put to death as sentenced)
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To: grundle

This plan turned out to be a disaster in Canada. Meathead is a Marxist who just doesn't give a damn about those who will suffer from this.
.


18 posted on 12/11/2005 1:05:43 PM PST by mugs99 (Don't take life too seriously, you won't get out alive.)
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To: wideminded

There's an old New Yorker cartoon showing a kid in an apparent Montessori setting asking the teacher, "Must we do whatever we want to do again today?"


19 posted on 12/11/2005 1:09:37 PM PST by dr_lew
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To: grundle

Preschool for All means Government Control for All. Exactly what this cheerful liberal lamebrain wants.


20 posted on 12/11/2005 1:10:46 PM PST by popdonnelly
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