On the Eve of the Election - About Preschool

Preschool - another education growth industry in our country.

Did you think this push for preschool came from the brains of Burgess and Murray?  Please.

Duncan and Obama have been pushing this.  They have a RttT (not affectionately called Race to the Tots). 

Education Week had this article, "Growth in States' Early Childhood Spending Opens Business Opportunities" from December 2013.

A recent 50-state scan by the Education Commission of the States shows that funding for early childhood programs, particularly pre-kindergarten, has been increasing over the past two years. This year alone, 38 bills were signed into law in 25 states, although some had more to do with policy and centralizing governance of early childhood initiatives than boosting funding, the Denver-based organization reports. 

Judging from a Marketplace K-12 review of the report, more opportunities for businesses that serve the youngest children may emerge next year, and beyond, in the following areas:
  • Providing preschool programs
  • Educating preschool teachers
  • Developing assessments of preschool children
  • Enhancing reading/literacy
  • Creating home-visit programs
  • Parent education and support programs
  • Providing quality rating or improvement systems
Am I cynical? Certainly.  You don't go thru years of watching this happen and not say, "Hmm. It appears there's money to be made on public ed (and lots of it)."  And, of course, there's the shield/buffer of "I'm doing it for the kids."

I'm sure many in ed reform DO care about kids.  But how much?  I don't know. 

As well, I note that the City is starting forward with a privacy initiative.  Here's coverage from Crosscut.

Prompted by concerns over how city departments collect and use data, Mayor Ed Murray and two members of the Seattle City Council unveiled a new privacy initiative on Monday morning.

City departments handle a wide range of data, including credit card information, library records and video footage. Under the new initiative, a team of city staff members will develop principles and guidelines that departments can refer to when making decisions with privacy implications. In addition to the principles, the team will come up with a statement that explains the city's privacy and data collection practices.

A committee of no more than nine privacy experts and academics will advise the inter-departmental team and, according to a document outlining the initiative, an outside firm will assess the current privacy practices in city departments sometime toward the middle of next year.

The departments that will have representatives on the team include, police, fire, City Light, transportation, information technology, Seattle Public Library and the City Attorney's Office. Seattle's Chief Technology Officer, Michael Mattmiller, along with staff from the Mayor's Office and the police department, briefed the City Council about the initiative on Monday morning.

You'll note - no Department of Education.  Even as the City expands from an Office to a Department and now may have a whole citywide preschool program, what about education?

I mean, all those preschoolers in 1B's program will become part of the feds' and OSPI's database from P-20.  (I think once middle class parents realize this, we may find fewer of their children in these classrooms.)  

Why would the City's Education Department want to consider data privacy?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Funny, Rahm Emanuel is trying to expand his city's preschool program....with high $take$.
http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-81868055/

"The money for the expansion would be loaned over the next four years by Goldman Sachs Social Impact Fund, the Northern Trust financial services firm, and the J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation.

CPS and the city would be making payments totaling $3,650 for each child who meets testing standards heading into kindergarten and third grade, Scott said. If they don't meet those standards, the city pays nothing, Scott said."

CT
Gardener said…
Progressives agonized about voting "No", but the only chance to stop B, was to vote A.

The math was always simple.

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