Seattle Preschool - Time to Start Thinking about Your Vote
Update: Here's an event to talk about this issue from the League of Women Voters/King County:
Help lay a foundation of understanding for the continuing public discourse on early learning and the role of public policy. Participate in the LWVS-KC conversation on September 4 with panelists representing the Puget Sound Educational Service District, University of Washington, and Thrive by Five. Where are we? Where do we want to go? How do we get there?
Event Date & Time:
Thu, Sep 4 - 7:00 PM
Seattle First Baptist Church
1111 Harvard Ave, Seattle
end of update
We're seeing a ramping up of the start of campaigns for both preschool measures. Sort of.
I would put a link to the City's Preschool for All campaign but there is none. (The PDC reports $36K being spent but only $150 in donations. It's hard to know what to make of a campaign that has no website.) When you put "Seattle Preschool for All" into Google, the first hit you get is to..Teachers United who, of course, supports this measure. Here's the City Council's Preschool for All webpage.
At some point, there has to be a separate campaign for Preschool for All because there can't be one through the City or City Council.
As for the other preschool initiative, Yes for Early Success (YES), they do have a website. I feel that this initiative is geared towards having better prepared and better paid preschool teachers (no matter where they teach) rather than the City's better prepared/better paid preschool teachers coupled with the creation of a huge number of preschools for the City to oversee and City provided curriculum and services.
The union group is appealing a lower court ruling that puts the two initiatives squarely against each other. They want voters to be able to vote in BOTH. (You can vote to not support both initiatives OR vote for one or the other but NOT both. I think this voting issue will be very confusing to voters.)
I'll do a later thread on both initiatives but at this point I can say two things:
- I think they are doing different things and it would be costly to pass both.
- I'm not sure either one of them (especially the City's) is the best way to approach this idea. Just like nearly everything in public education, it's not the question "Would providing quality preschool to more kids be a good idea?" It's a question of the devil being in the details.
I believe the City's proposal leaves too many unanswered questions and I'm not willing to just vote in a pot of money especially when so much seems to depend on this "partnership" with Seattle Schools. I think the union's may be too narrow a focus.
I welcome any and all input on this issue. Telling me it's a "social justice" issue is not going to blind me to examining the initiatives fully and I'll just venture that it's not wrong to vote no on an important issue if what is being offered is not the right way to get there.
Help lay a foundation of understanding for the continuing public discourse on early learning and the role of public policy. Participate in the LWVS-KC conversation on September 4 with panelists representing the Puget Sound Educational Service District, University of Washington, and Thrive by Five. Where are we? Where do we want to go? How do we get there?
Event Date & Time:
Thu, Sep 4 - 7:00 PM
Seattle First Baptist Church
1111 Harvard Ave, Seattle
end of update
We're seeing a ramping up of the start of campaigns for both preschool measures. Sort of.
I would put a link to the City's Preschool for All campaign but there is none. (The PDC reports $36K being spent but only $150 in donations. It's hard to know what to make of a campaign that has no website.) When you put "Seattle Preschool for All" into Google, the first hit you get is to..Teachers United who, of course, supports this measure. Here's the City Council's Preschool for All webpage.
At some point, there has to be a separate campaign for Preschool for All because there can't be one through the City or City Council.
As for the other preschool initiative, Yes for Early Success (YES), they do have a website. I feel that this initiative is geared towards having better prepared and better paid preschool teachers (no matter where they teach) rather than the City's better prepared/better paid preschool teachers coupled with the creation of a huge number of preschools for the City to oversee and City provided curriculum and services.
The union group is appealing a lower court ruling that puts the two initiatives squarely against each other. They want voters to be able to vote in BOTH. (You can vote to not support both initiatives OR vote for one or the other but NOT both. I think this voting issue will be very confusing to voters.)
I'll do a later thread on both initiatives but at this point I can say two things:
- I think they are doing different things and it would be costly to pass both.
- I'm not sure either one of them (especially the City's) is the best way to approach this idea. Just like nearly everything in public education, it's not the question "Would providing quality preschool to more kids be a good idea?" It's a question of the devil being in the details.
I believe the City's proposal leaves too many unanswered questions and I'm not willing to just vote in a pot of money especially when so much seems to depend on this "partnership" with Seattle Schools. I think the union's may be too narrow a focus.
I welcome any and all input on this issue. Telling me it's a "social justice" issue is not going to blind me to examining the initiatives fully and I'll just venture that it's not wrong to vote no on an important issue if what is being offered is not the right way to get there.
Comments
Melissa, Ed Murray's deputy is promoting preschool for all in atleast one legislative district meeting. Does this constitute a violtion?
It should also be noted that I've seen literature promoting the city's preschool initiative, but NO campaign is listed.
sss.westbrook@gmail.com
They called it the "childcare proposition."
The city plan, which is of enormous importance to the city, is funded at $150.
I predict that the city's plan will be funded at $1M or more. I predict that Bill Gates and Seattle's technology/business community will support the city's plan.
Interesting
-- Ivan Weiss
Ivan, they don't want to put the money into Head Start. There is data/perception that Head Start has uneven quality. Now more money might fix that unevenness but that taint is out there.
As well, one of the consultants the City has works for a for-profit company that is now trying to be the Head Start management company. There's money to be made off of managing preschool.
Will they use the SPS curriculum revised for pre-k, or will it be an arts-rich focused curriculum? Or...?
How many pre-k students assigned to a class? 15, 20, 30?
How do schools no operate with what is essentially an additional grade added to them? Won't they need to share the gym, playground, bathrooms?
Are there any schools in the district with the capacity to take on Pre-K classrooms?
Do principals oversee Pre-K in their building?
I think the city would have been better off piloting this program somewhere first for a year, let parents get a sense of how this works.
For me to vote for Universal Pre-K with no understanding of the nuts and bolts of what I am voting for earns a no vote from me.
I just hope I can decipher the ballot to ensure I vote no!
Their maximum class size would be 20, with a ratio of 1 adult to 10 kids.
The huge issue with bringing in all these preschools -to schools previously without them - is exactly the issues you raise. Preschools have to have their OWN bathrooms and playground. Who is going to pay for that and where will the room at our overcrowded schools come from?
No, the principals might have input but will not be overseeing the program in their school.
What would be better is to spend the money making Head Start better.
Studies make clear that preschool can be a boon to disadvantaged kids. But they don't tell us whether preschool helps more than, say, full-day kindergarten, or smaller class sizes, or family literacy classes. So, is this the right investment of the dollars? Hard to say.
The City resolution admits that because of various factors (Section 3): they don’t know how many 3-4 year olds are enrolled in child care/preschool, public or private, how many are not, and what types of child care/preschools there are?
It would seem that this kind of info would be something you would want to know BEFORE you put forth a proposition to voters. What exactly are we voting on and what children will it cover? I would favor doing this research FIRST and THEN designing a program and presenting it to voters. Not bundling the two because, in the end, you are really voting for a pot of money with vague parameters for spending.
So I think you have it right, Po3. We need to know what we are talking about before we vote in a pot of money.
As I see it now, there are too many decisions/agreements that will happen AFTER the vote.
You might want to research Ascelero. Ascelero is a for-profit group that is restructuring Head Start.
Elen Frede is the VP of Ascelero and she is one of the individuals leading the city's program.
http://hechingerreport.org/content/a-for-profit-approach-to-head-start_5787/
The city claims their program will serve 2000 students, and the levy will generate $58M for the prek program. Per the city, the cost per student will be $10K. Do the math...2000 students @$10K/ea does not equal $58M.
It should also be noted that there is a Teach for America has gotten into preschools. While I don't think TfA is a bad idea for prek, I have to consider the Prek-3 alignment of the city's proposal and wonder about the implications.
Isn't Stritikus working with the Gates Foundation to create a Prek3 college path?
It is also interesting to note the cost differences in the union's plan...per the union and city. The city is claiming that the union's plan is a lot more expensive than union claim. However, the city will not release the figures to be analyzed. I have to call BS on that one.
(2) The union-backed measure would require that preschools charge families no more than 10% of their monthly income on preschool tuition and that all preschool employees be paid a minimum wage of at least $15 immediately. I can assure you that teacher aides, etc. are not being paid $15 per hour now. So, in essence, preschool revenue will go down while expenses will rise. What would be the net result: Many preschools will close --- decreasing the number of quality preschools in the city --- or preschools will have to cut costs elsewhere --- thus, affecting the quality of preschool programs.
Neither of these measures will significantly positively affect the preschool options and opportunities for our city's 3- and 4-year-olds.
--- swk
If the city was doing this, and leaving SPS out of it, and, they had an actual PLAN, with full details, costs, facilities specified, and implementation, I would vote yes.
But, this is so screwed up, is causing problems, and is only going to creat intense problems for SPS if it passes -- as we have no leadership.
How does one vote NO to both?
--no thanks
It is interesting to note that the city has NO Expuslsion policy for preschoolers. Expelling preschoolers (!??). It turns out that there is research that indicates toddlers experience behavioral issues when preschool is extended beyond 6 hrs. per day. I suspect that is why the city's plan is limiting preschool/ childcare to 6 hrs. per day. Make NO mistake: the city's proposal is Common Core for preschool aged children and is aligned to K-3. The city's proposal is also participating in educataional research and students will be tracked.
There is one study that indicates students do well, throughout their lives with preschool, but, the study was conducted using a very small amount of students. There have been papers written that it is not financially feasible to expand this particular program.
Either way...I'm sure there are dualing studies.
As I understand it, voters will be asked whether or not they support a preschool proposal and individuals would have the ability to vote NO. If an individual supports preschool..then, they will have an opportunity to choose between the union and city proposal.
My understanding is that you can vote no on the first question but whoever gets the majority vote between the two, will win.
So there will be a winner. (I could be wrong, though.)
You have to wonder two things:
1) if the City is asking for a renewal of the F&E levy at the same time as the Preschool measure, what does that mean for passing actual school levies? Is that competition?
2) How much more of the F&E levy will be diverted to preschool? That is also a possibility that has been discussed.
Page 1 indicates that 26% of the Family and Ed. Levy is spent on early learning.
http://clerk.seattle.gov/~public/meetingrecords/2013/gpnf20130703_2b.pdf