The National Institute for Early Education Research is released new statistics on the enrollment rate for preschool. The good news is the rating has gone up; the bad news is that it is still pretty low. 29% of the nations 4 year olds were in states funded Preschool last year, and even when you add in the kids who are participating in the head start program (federally funded) that still isn't even 40% enrolled in any kind of public preschool. In the review the team ranks the program with benchmarks like class size, teacher training, school lunches. Only five states met all 10 benchmarks, while Texas trailed behind only meeting two of them. Last year 9 states didn't offer any kind of state funded preschool. Deborah Phillips of Georgetown University states that since there is so much focus on getting the kids in the door of school, there is little attention left for what actually goes on in school. This causes us to miss the whole point of the kids going to school which is to inspire them and help them learn.
This is an example of that state our education system is in. Preschool is a child's first introduction to education so it is very important that they enjoy this time so they will be open to the rest of their educational time. This connects to when the Head Start program was first released in 1964 under LBJ, and the results from today show that we have made some progress but there is still a long way to go.
This article was written by Cody Turner for NPR to read more click the link below:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2015/05/11/405882272/preschool-by-state-whos-spending-and-whats-it-buying
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