Who does public preschool benefit?
It was just a few years ago that the state of Montana adopted full-day kindergarten as the preferred model instead of half-day. A few decades before that there were communities with no kindergarten at all.
Today, Gov. Steve Bullock and a large component of the education industry are promoting the idea of government-sponsored pre-school for 4-year-olds.
It is hard to be against education, especially since participation in pre-school will be voluntary, but it’s not hard to be against the expansion of government control in the lives of Montana families.
You see, the interesting thing is that we do have pre-schools now, lots of them, run by the private sector as an alternative or upgrade from standard day care. Those pre-schools respond to the needs of parents and exist as the result of those needs.
These newly proposed “public” pre-schools will exist to respond to the needs (mandates?) of the state as the result of those needs (mandates?) Some legislators such as Rep. Matt Rosendale, who ran unsuccessfully in the GOP primary for U.S. House, have expressed concerns about what the state hopes to accomplish — and more particularly what it will accomplish.
Rosendale sees the potential for new state regulations to “choke out” current pre-school operators.
“It’s a whole host of licensing and certifications that these private institutions are not going to be in a position to provide,” Rosendale said.
That is certainly a significant concern. Whenever a government agency tries to shunt aside private businesses out of an existing market, it is a serious problem.
But when the ultimate effect of such a move is giving government more control over children and their development, and parents less, we should be even more alert.
Missoula County Public Schools adopted a position paper last June that promoted the “Pre-Kindergarten Foundation for the Montana Common Core Standards.” There is nothing overtly problematic in that paper, but let us recognize that not all parents agree with the approach of Common Core, even though they are being painted into a corner by government regulation.
If the state determines standards for education at 4 years of age now, what is to stop them from claiming to know better than mom and dad what is appropriate for the education of toddlers, and then newborns? Didn’t anyone out there read “Brave New World”?
Yes, Common Core claims to be working to help students reach their “unique potential,” as the Missoula district put it, but who’s to say that they are not instead moving toward less diversity through increased homogenization of education practices.
Whether or not Gov. Bullock’s intentions are good, we suggest that legislators give this proposal a good hard look and consider what they will be getting for the estimated investment of $37 million for two years of public preschool access. Yes, it will benefit the education infrastructure, but will it benefit parents and children? That is the question that needs to be addressed.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Daily Inter Lake’s editorial board.