The other day I urged reporters to ask careful questions about the quality of a pre-kindergarten, and to go beyond simply repeating findings on a report. Last week, a story came up in Tulsa, Oklahoma that truly begged the quality question.

The Tulsa Tribune reported that a pre-k site was shuttered after three pre-kindergarten kids wandered off and ended up at a Sonic Drive-In about two blocks south of the YWCA.
(The ones that got away?)

To her credit, Tulsa World reporter Shannon Muchmore followed up the story, obtaining inspection reports from the Department of Human Services that showed the YWCA site had no recent violations.

So how did the three little ones manage to scamper off? According to Muchmore's story,
two YWCA employees, a certified teacher and an assistant teacher, were watching 20 children at the time. That's within the DHS-recommended ratio of one caretaker per 15 children.

The site is shuttered while the investigation continues. An explanation is called for, especially because Oklahoma has been considered a pre-k leader, according to Pre-K Now, the public education and advocacy organization.

How do you measure the quality of a pre-kindergarten environment where kids can run out the door, only to be found several blocks away?

NY1 focused yesterday on the plight of one school that offers half-day prekindergarten classes for its neighborhood, but lacks the funding to expand the program into full time (all day) pre-K services. The article nicely touches on the major issue facing the pre-K programs in NYS – funding. While in 1997 the universal pre-K program was heralded for its expansion,inventiveness and rally cry to provide Pre-K to all of NYS children, by the 2001 budget, funding had dried up significantly and the programs were stalled. According to a 2004 census, there were over 400,000 4 year olds in NYC, but only 48,000 were in a pre-K program, and the majority of those children were in half day pre-K.

It's good to see more personal stories on the lack of pre-k and its effect on the community, and this will hopefully lead to more questions...and more action.

Charles B. Reed, who oversees 46,000 faculty and staff and 450,000 students on 23 California campuses, weighed in on the future of the littlest Californians in an op-ed piece that appeared in the San Jose Mercury News.

Reed has his hands full managing young adults at the country's largest senior system of public higher education. His plea, though, was aimed on giving a better beginning to those he hopes will become future students. Reed noted that solid pre-kindergarten programs can pay long term dividends in the years to come -- and that only about half of eligible, low-income, preschool-age children in California receive a publicly subsidized pre-K start.

Reed noted two recent reports on this issue worthing taking a look at: the first from the Governor's Committee on Education Excellence and a second was convened by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell.

The report found that the achievement gap in the K-12 years begins when kids first enter kindergarten class -- and that those who start behind, stay behind. "Without a strong beginning, these children can only grasp at an elusive dream,'' Reed writes.

NY Times national writer Kate Zernike published a funny, smart review of a new book called Parenting, Inc. by Pamela Paul that examines the phenomenon of well-off parents and the multi-billion dollar industry of doo-dads, devices, and distractions that are marketed as must-haves to anxiety-ridden new parents.

Pushed by a host of factors — the guilt and exhaustion of working parents, the dispersion of family networks that once passed knowledge from generation to generation, the pressure of admissions from preschool to college, and a culture that worships all things celebrity (including its offspring) — we are intimidated or bamboozled into buying all sorts of goods and services that we not only don’t need, but that may harm our children. Slaves to legions of professional advisers and predatory entrepreneurs, we are rendered unable to recall the advice Dr. Spock issued our parents: Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.

Here's a link to a Salon Q&A with author Paul.

Not sure how widespread this phenomenon is outside of the Upper West Side of Manhattan. One would see $800 foldup strollers in pockets elsewhere--Chicago's Northshore, Boston's best suburbs, Orange County, California, Palo Alto for example. So, beyond an opportunity to caricature the rich (though secretly envious), I'm not sure how journalists can turn this trend into education stories. I guess it just shows the vast, vast gulf there is between Head Start parents on the one hand and those who send their privileged children to the preschools that charge more than many colleges on the other.

The Jackson Clarion Ledger published an editorial last week urging better funding for pre-kindergarten, noting that Mississippi is one of only 11 states without a state funded program.

The responses posted at the end of the editorial made it clear how much opposition remains in the state, ranked 48th in the nation in per pupil spending and 48th in student achievement.

“Government baby-sitting,’’ one individual wrote. “Early childhood indoctrination for the socialist USA. Get them on the big yellow buses to send them to the fascist-run propaganda factories ASAP. Sorry, send your children. Leave mine alone.’’

Such remarks should be worrisome to pre-kindergarten advocates in the state, where Republican Governor Haley Barbour has resisted funding expansions like nearby Tennessee.

Advocates who support the Quality Act of 2008 are now hopeful that lawmakers in the large rural state will include $5 million in the budget to improve existing centers. Money would be earmked for three programs approved in 2006 but never funded: an early childhood grant program, a child-care resource and referral effort, and a “quality step system,” which would pay bonuses to providers who meet higher-than-minimum standards, according to an article in this week's Education Week.

One person who responded to the editorial wanted to know what other states that fund pre-kindergarten are actually getting for their tax dollars. Another complained that the state can’t “get it right,’’ with its K-12 students.

The opinions expressed freely are a window into an issue that merits thorough coverage and exploration.

Sara Mead at Early Ed Watch posted on this before I could get to it: A German, Friedrich Fröbel, created the first kindergarten (literally children's garden) in 1840 to honor the 100th anniversary of Gutenberg's discovery of movable type. Oddly, though, as Mike Estrel recounted on the front page of the Wall Street Journal this week, Fröbel wanted young children to grow up in nature, "cordoned off from letters and numbers." In Germany today parents are again trying to offer their children the chance to play, worried that kindergarten has become too academically oriented. So, they're sending them to what are called waldkindergärten, or "forest kindergartens" to splash about in the mud, dig for worms, examine lizards, and other activities that characterized

Photo from the Wall Street Journal/Mike Estrel

playtime before the Screen Age of computers, TVs, game consoles etc.

Here are some great quotes:

Iwao Uehara, a professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture, says he has been trying to set up such a school in Japan, but the project is struggling. Until there's evidence that Waldkindergärten graduates end up attending "famous universities," it's going to be a tough sell, he says.

Among the nature-based activities, children learn how to handle a real saw. "A plastic saw is no good," says Ms. [Marsha] Johnson. (Johnson set up a "forest kindergarten" in Portland, Oregon, the Journal reported.) "You might as well give them a plastic life." The worst that has happened thus far to the children is the occasional bee sting, she says.

I tried to find anything written about the school in Portland via Google but was unsuccessful.

By the way, the first public kindergarten in the U.S. was established in 1872 in St. Louis. Wikipedia's history is here.

...to promote the long-term value of high-quality kindergarten, Roy Miller, the affable president of advocacy group known as The Children's Campaign in Florida is trying to turn the video of a violent 30-minute beating of an ostracized Lakeland cheerleader into a lobbying opportunity. The video, taken by one of the attackers, briefly popped up on YouTube, which led to the involvement of the local sheriff and the video's removal. It also led to national coverage. "This horrific evidence makes it clear: we must do more for our children" Miller writes in a letter to supporters this week, urging them to write their state representatives. It goes on:

Should Florida make a $2-million subsidy to honor golfers while cutting infant mortality prevention? Can’t Florida close a $63.5-million recreational fishing tax loophole instead of eliminating child protection workers? Does Florida choose a $41-million tax exemption for advertising inserts over quality pre-k and before and after school programs? Now with the eyes of America on Florida, do we truly believe that a $72-million tax exemption for boats and planes is more important than prevention, intervention and rehabilitative services to Florida’s troubled girls?

It's been interesting watching the coverage of the fight for pre-kindergarten funding emerge in two very different states, where advocates -- and taxpayers -- are keeping a close eye on the outcomes.

An editorial in The Tuscaloosa News noted Alabama Gov. Bob Riley's push for an additional $20 million for the Alabama's voluntary pre-kindergarten program, which would allow the state to triple the number of 4-year-olds in the program by 2001.

Earlier this month Riley asked 1,000 pre-kindergarten advocates in the state to walk up to the State House, find their representatives and senartors "and tell them to vote for this budget because pre-K is so crucial to the future of our state.''

Up in Massachusetts, where Gov. Deval Patrick came to office full of promises for an ambitious pre-kindergarten program, economic realities have hit home and derailed much of his education agenda. The Boston Globe pointed out last week that the House is likely to scale back some of Patrick's spending initiatives, including an additional 892 pre-kindergarten classrooms. Patrick no longer is making a big push.

Patrick told reporters the economy has hampered his ability to expand spending, and that there is "no point getting frustrated about the economic times.''

I bumped into Steve Barnett, the co-director of the National Institute on Early Education Research, at the Education Writers Association conference in Chicago over the weekend. As we were being jostled by a scrum of p.r. folks, I asked him what he'd thought of the coverage of NIEER's 2007 State of Preschool yearbook. He said the report didn't get much attention from national outlets but that it was the hook for a lot of local stories. Catching up on the coverage I'd missed while on the road this morning I found a perfect example of what Barnett meant. The television station WYMT in Hazard, Kentucky used the report as the news hook for a visit to a preschool in Perry County, Kentucky. Reporter Heather Hale didn't quote any statistics or academic types. Nor did she talk about how much Kentucky actually spends. But the visuals and a couple brief interviews nicely illustrated high quality pre-k.

A Denver Post editorial last week noted that the universal pre-k program approved by the city's voters in 2006 is only serving 695 children and has prompted a new civic effort to speed expansion. The editorial notes that one reason for the slow growth is that the programs funded by the measure are required to be high quality. While the editorial says that's a problem, others might well disagree and call it a virtue.

A few days later a Rocky Mountain News editorial added the fact that the program is only spending about a third of the amount that was intended. The Rocky opposed the measure in 2006 but it says that it is rooting for its success. Given that the program was authorized only 18 months ago the Rocky said it needs to be given more time. But, the editorial said, if the program isn't running at full or near-full speed a year from now there would be reason to complain.

Here's the Post's news story, pegged to a new $1 million ad campaign to boost awareness. The Rocky published a much more useful story--including details about the program that might actually help parents--here. But neither

Linda Mcconnell / Special To The Rocky

reporter actually ventured into classrooms to explore the issue of quality or give readers a sense of what children are getting.

The program should be serving more students soon. In March it was announced that 1,100 families had applied during a six-week enrollment period and that 100 more centers had become certified to serve them.

While heading out of Chicago Saturday I saw that the early Sunday edition (at the L.A. Times we called this the "bulldog" edition) had a big front page spread delving into scientific, political, and economic issues related to how best to invest in early childhood education. It was an excellent piece that focused on how early some form of early education outside the home should begin. Brain research was cited but the piece also explored the competing interests and tradeoffs involved in early education policy. It was comprehensive, nuanced, authoritative, and balanced. Readers would come away knowing the parameters of key debates on early ed. Journalists should look to it as a model.

Governors who push for pre-kindergarten funding in the face of budget woes won't always get public applause, but they certainly will get adulation from pre-kindergarten advocates. That's what happened last week to Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, who recently told reporters the economy his hampered his ability to expand spending.

But Patrick managed to propose triple funding for prekindergarten education, asking for $22.1 million in next year's budget, earning him accolades from PreK Now. His proposal would boost access for 14,320 3-and 4-year-olds if approved by the Legislature.

In Tennessee, however, it's a different story for Governor Phil Bredesen who has also been something of a darling among pre-kindergarten advocates for expanding programs and extolling the virtues of early education. This week, Bredesen acknowledged how difficult funding for pre-kindergarten will be at a time when the state is faced with a $500 million budget shortfall.

Bredesen told parents, teachers and others that the program is resented by opponents as "publicly funded babysitting,'' and added that there are real difficulties getting General Assembly approval.