Quote of note:

Private schools say quality is in the eye of the ultimate beholder: The parents. If they don't like a school, they will place their child elsewhere.

There goes the entire basis of the No Child Left Behind testing regime.

Yeah, it's the same article I was talking about last post.

Pre-K bill pits private vs. public concerns for care
A new pre-K program was designed to appease private and religious day-care centers, but Miami-Dade and Broward fear public programs could be harmed.
BY GARY FINEOUT AND MARC CAPUTO

The loose regulations benefit private and religious schools and day-care centers, and they expose the roots of the battle over pre-K: money, and who gets it once the state begins to pay for the $300 million to $400 million voluntary program for more than 150,000 4-year-olds in the fall.

To my mind this is a straight transfer of public funds into private pockets.Let's take the lower figure, $300 million. Is there a REASON this can't be used to fix the public school system that's not purely philosophical?

And private schools will still be charging tuition, right?

To ensure public school districts in urban counties don't create their own large, pre-K programs that would make it hard for private institutions to compete, the legislation says any school district not meeting the class caps "in each classroom" is not eligible for state pre-K money. South Florida school districts have met class-size reductions but have complied by lowering the average class size over the entire county rather than in each class.

They had two years to work this out.

It makes no sense to lower average class size as described. Some are significantly below the maximum student to teacher ratio and some significantly above. Why they'd do that isn't clear.

The tilt in favor of private schools in the bill, however, goes beyond just the class cap. The bill would allow:

• The use of religion in pre-K education. There are few limits on what kind of curriculum should be offered, other than it should have some focus on early literacy.
• Providers to deny admission to any 4-year-old based on religion. Unlike Bush's initial voucher program passed in 1999, this legislation does not include a requirement that admission be "religion-neutral."
• An 18-1 student-to-teacher ratio. Opposed by Bush, this staffing ratio falls more closely into line with varying accrediting standards some private providers use.
• A three-hour average day of instruction in the year-round program, mirroring what many private schools now offer. Public schools offer six hours.
• Private schools to avoid a requirement that all the program's schools have teachers with higher-education degrees by 2010. The degree requirement is now considered an "aspirational goal."
• The state's Labor Department, not the Department of Education, to have day-to-day control over the pre-K program.

They are coming for your kids.

To win public school support, the program ensures that public schools will offer a more intensive summer school program. Exact details on program costs will be determined during the spring legislative session in March.

Give up now and we'll decide who to thank you when we get around to it.

Ellen McKinley, founder of the faith-based Child Development Education Alliance, said she thought the bill was a done deal. She said she liked it because it "leveled the playing field" for public and private providers and the three-hour instruction limit was preferable to four hours.

With a state subsidy for four hours, she said, it would be easier for public schools to tap local tax money and produce a six-hour program. That would make it almost impossible for private providers to compete with districts such as Miami-Dade and Broward that already offer pre-K to thousands of kids.

"Leveled the playing field." Affirmative action for religious schools.

Why do they need such support if they are of such high quality?

McKinley said she was opposed to requiring advanced degrees for full-time instructors in six years.

"We're going to ask experienced teachers to take time away from their families, and I don't know if that's a good idea," she said.

Oh, it's never a good idea for pre-K teachers to have knowledge. They might accidentally teach the kids something.

This "families" thing is as full of it as "retiring to spend more time with my family"

IN THE COURTS

Religious schools face another threat: Lawsuits.

A suit filed by a coalition that included the state's teachers union and the NAACP contends the voucher law violates the state's ban on financially aiding sectarian institutions. Bush has lost the case in every venue and is appealing to the state Supreme Court.

Fred Menachem, who helped run the amendment campaign on behalf of its creator, outgoing Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, says he's prepared to sue over the pre-K legislation. He points out that the petition signed by voters to put the measure on the ballot said the program would have "appropriate staffing ratios, teacher qualifications and professional development" standards.

And yet you're fighting the class size restrictions and oppose the requirement for an advanced degree, prefer a three hour subsidy over a four hour one so the public school side is hampered, will discriminate based on a child's religion.

And the Department of Labor, rather than the Department of Education will run it.

You. Suck.

"I will find a team of lawyers to take the case," he said. "This is not about business. This is not about politics."

Neither is it about education. It's about money, and indoctrination.