D-20 to offer free full day kindergarten (Boulder: day care, neighborhood)

[Vision67]

https://gazette.com/education/academ...e2553fb0e.html

"Academy School District 20 opened enrollment this week for tuition-free, full-day kindergarten beginning in August, deciding not to wait on Colorado lawmakers who are considering funding it statewide.

The Pikes Peak region’s second-largest district — one of few local districts to charge parents for all-day kindergarten — has been weighing the idea for a while, Chief Financial Officer Tom Gregory said.

“It’s been a longtime goal, and now with interest at the state level, it seemed like the perfect time,” he said. “Everything is pointing in the same direction, and it’s the right thing to do for kids.”"

I like this idea. Supporting education is the right thing to do.

Now if only we could go back to the values we had in the 60s that provided essentially tuition free college.

For example, in 1967 the tuition at the University of Arizona college of engineering was just $90 per semester. I suspect CU Boulder tuition was similar. Cal Berkeley was free.

[LHS79]

Originally Posted by Vision67

https://gazette.com/education/academ...e2553fb0e.html

"Academy School District 20 opened enrollment this week for tuition-free, full-day kindergarten beginning in August, deciding not to wait on Colorado lawmakers who are considering funding it statewide.

The Pikes Peak region’s second-largest district — one of few local districts to charge parents for all-day kindergarten — has been weighing the idea for a while, Chief Financial Officer Tom Gregory said.

“It’s been a longtime goal, and now with interest at the state level, it seemed like the perfect time,” he said. “Everything is pointing in the same direction, and it’s the right thing to do for kids.”"

I like this idea. Supporting education is the right thing to do.

Now if only we could go back to the values we had in the 60s that provided essentially tuition free college.

For example, in 1967 the tuition at the University of Arizona college of engineering was just $90 per semester. I suspect CU Boulder tuition was similar. Cal Berkeley was free.

Maybe this is related to people wanting more "free stuff" like all-day childcare (a.k.a. kindergarten):

https://gazette.com/business/colorad...835c9b9d9.html

[otowi]

I think some of the other local districts already do - I think D11 already does. I think while it is a good idea it is also about marketing. Schools are always in a fight to try to get funding.

[TCHP]

My kids had free, full day kindergarten in D11 a dozen years ago.

I guess the whole, "free" things trips me up. Its public education provided through public districts supported through the tax base. These teachers are already being paid salary whether its for half day service or full day service because they are there all day already supporting the morning or afternoon classes.

[otowi]

Originally Posted by TCHP

My kids had free, full day kindergarten in D11 a dozen years ago.

I guess the whole, "free" things trips me up. Its public education provided through public districts supported through the tax base. These teachers are already being paid salary whether its for half day service or full day service because they are there all day already supporting the morning or afternoon classes.

Well - if a teacher has half-day kindergarten, they can have two classes of, let's say, 25 students. If they teach full-day kindergarten, they can have one class of 25 students - not one class of 50. So, the district has to pay for another kindergarten teacher and the facilities/space of a second concurrent class. It is more expensive for the district to offer full-day kindergarten. It typically means fewer teachers and larger class sizes at some other grade level to fund the kindergarten position.

[Mike from back east]

The kids are worth it. All of them.

[DrDog]

Is full day a proven educational benefit? Or is it basically daycare?

[captain_hug99]

Originally Posted by otowi

I think some of the other local districts already do - I think D11 already does. I think while it is a good idea it is also about marketing. Schools are always in a fight to try to get funding.

Yes, they've had it for several years. D49 has had it for seven years. The first year of free K is currently in 6th grade. If one looks at the number of students in the current sixth grade class at all of the d49 middle schools, you will see a huge bubble. The number of current fifth graders is SIGNIFICANTLY smaller. (last year my school had 7 sections of 5th grade, this year we have 4).

So what happened? People saw that there was free full day kindergarten and put their children in without regard to whether the child was ready for it or not. We had 4 year olds, yes 4 year olds in kindergarten. Some weren't fully potty trained.

What did that mean to classrooms? Every single year, teachers said, "what a difference between the previous year and this one?!?" and not for the better! It wasn't until they realized that they had the students that had began kindergarten earlier than if parents had to pay for full day.

I'm not well conversed in test scores to see if that class of children were better off or not.

BUT, I will say, many parents would choice their children into schools that had free kindergarten and then go back to their neighborhood schools for first grade, all because the families wanted "free daycare."

[captain_hug99]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

The kids are worth it. All of them.

True, and it is about time that free kindergarten is universal in Colorado. But the first year there were lots of growing pains.

[otowi]

Originally Posted by DrDog

Is full day a proven educational benefit? Or is it basically daycare?

I think the evidence is mixed - kind of depends on priorities. Some populations of students do show academic improvement at least for a few years as a result of full day kindergarten. Those effects tend to fade out in upper grades. And the emphasize on academics in kindergarten is controversial in itself - there are questions about the developmental appropriateness of what the standards and testing movement has done to kindergarten (and many other grades as well, but especially so for kindergarten). Internationally, there is some evidence that waiting until later for academics is better in the long run - there are countries who don't start teaching reading until age 7 or 8 and kids do very well academically in comparison to U.S. in some metrics. So I'd say one can find some evidence of positives, but it all comes down to what one thinks kindergarten should be like.

I do think there is a day care aspect to it - parents struggle with paying for a place for their kid if they work or struggle with not being able to work because of the cost of day care, etc.