As reality takes kids out of home early, we can't neglect pre-K

The Tennessean

By Dwight Lewis

May 17, 2007 - NASHVILLE - "It's a fact of life,'' Steve Suitts, program coordinator for the Southern Education Foundation, told me over the telephone recently. "Seventy percent of 4-year-olds in Tennessee are being cared for outside the home during the daytime, according to the 2004 U.S. Census Report.

"So, the question becomes what kind of experience are they going to have? Is it one that's educational and helps them build basic learning skills that a 4-year-old should have and helps them and society, or is that one that doesn't do that?''

All of us should hope that it's the former. If a child doesn't get those basic skills at a young age, he or she tends to become a dropout before graduating from high school.

That's where pre-kindergarten learning comes into play. "Pre-K is the difference between being ready for school and not being ready,'' Suitts told me. "Part of the dropout problem in Tennessee is that a lot of youngsters start school behind and never catch up.''

While educators are hesitant to say we have an epidemic in Metro schools, for instance, the dropout rate for the 2004-05 academic year was 20.8 percent.

Tennessee Education Commissioner Lana Seivers told me last year that if one student drops out of school, it is a problem, "especially if it's my child.'' She added that the state's dropout rate had come down recently from 10.7 percent to 10.4 percent.

Gov. Phil Bredesen has pushed to expand the pre-kindergarten program by using a combination of taxpayer funds with money from the state lottery.

Most lawmakers have gone along with him on that effort and a recently released report shows that it's paying off.

"It's up and coming,'' Suitts said of Tennessee's pre-K program. "You have a low enrollment rate, but it's increasing rapidly. You also have high quality standards, and Tennessee is one of six states that operates full-day programs.

"It's a key asset for the future.''

The Southern Education Foundation reported last week that over the last 140 years, Southern states have made significant progress in catching up with the nation in education and income, but in recent decades, the South's gains have virtually flattened as the world economy continues to elevate the critical role of education in innovation, productivity and income.

"Today, most Southern states remain where they were in the early 1980s, closer to the national average than they were decades ago, but still at or near the bottom of the nation's major rankings in education, income and well-being.

"There is an all-important exception to this pattern of Southern underperformance: high-quality, early childhood education, pre-kindergarten. Several Southern states have become the nation's leaders in pre-K over the last 10 years. As a result, the South in 2007 leads the nation in offering state-funded pre-K to 3-and 4-year-old children.''

While pre-K is all-important, it is not all there is to a child's successful education, and the report says the South cannot neglect or shortchange the role of parents nor the necessary improvements and funding in K-12 education and higher education, especially for low-income students.

It's great that Tennessee seems to be on the right track. We just have to make sure we keep it up and not let our children nor the rest of society down.

 

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