Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

Slow and steady?

Denver's preschool credits need to ramp up quickly

The Rocky

Published April 25, 2008 at 9:57 a.m.
Updated April 25, 2008 at 9:57 a.m.

Text size  

More Editorials

More stories »

We opposed passage of the Denver Preschool Program in 2006, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t rooting for it to prove itself in the coming years. If Denverites are going to support preschool subsidies every time they make a purchase that involves a sales tax, they might as well get something meaningful for the investment.

Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz is not sure that’s the case right now. Earlier this week, she objected to the fact that only $4.3 million of the program’s $11.8 million budget is being spent on tuition credits for parents. “This is not high enough for my expectations,” Faatz said.

Nor for ours. But we’re also realists about the time it can take to get a program up to speed.

Voters approved the preschool tax not quite 18 months ago, meaning we’re still in the first full academic year since its passage. It takes time to qualify preschools and get the word out to parents about available new funds — not to mention put in place oversight procedures ensuring that public money is properly spent.

A year from now, it would be utterly unacceptable for the program to be spending little more than a third of its budget on tuition credits. The public was led to believe they were voting to provide support for mostly needy parents who want to get their kids into quality preschools — the purpose being to make sure the youngsters didn’t end up in first grade already hopelessly behind their peers.

Indeed, almost every news article on the topic that preceded the ’06 election included a line such as this one that we plucked from one story: “If approved, the tax would raise $12 million annually, with most of that funneled into preschool tuition credits for the families of 4-year-olds.”

To be sure, some of the articles did go on to say that “a portion also would go to preschool providers to improve their programs.” But the emphasis clearly was on direct subsidies to parents.

Meanwhile, few if any of the stories warned that the program would be lavishing money on advertising and outreach. Yet in a progress report to a city council committee this week, James Mejia, the executive director of the program, said it would spend $1 million on advertising and outreach in order to accelerate the pace of signing up families.

OK, we suppose, this once — but only because Mejia also announced bold goals to raise the number of kids getting tuition help, from fewer than 700 at the moment to 3,800 in August, to perhaps 6,600 in the future.

If he’s right, the future should see less spending on promotions and on grants to preschools and much more spending on tuition credits. That’s what voters were promised; that’s what they should get.

Comments

  • April 25, 2008

    8:27 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Brain writes:

    One of the reasons I won't buy anything in Denver's city limits.

  • April 25, 2008

    9:14 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    vudumom writes:

    Here's my problem with this program. First let's make the distinction between Preschool and Daycare. If you have a Preschool it is supposed to be opened set up and run like a school. So why the need to give funds to programs to improve their programs? Your either a Preschool or your not. If you are selling your services as a Preschool and need funds to improve your program then you were never a Preschool to begin with, you were a Daycare facility.
    If they are funding Daycare facilities and trying to upgrade them to Preschools with public funds that is a waste of taxpayer money. The mindset of someone providing preschool and Daycare are two far apart goals. One is a over priced babysitter and one who is not a properly equipped Preschool is a much more highly priced babysitter.
    One more important point after teaching Preschool and owning my own facility, one year of Preschool is not going to get the majority of children ready for kindergarten.It takes more than that.So their is another waste of taxpayer money. They will never get the results they think they will get providing one year of mediocre Preschool. Preschool's cannot hire and keep dedicated teacher's for the kids and the curriculum has to be rather intense to get the kids to learn all they need to learn before entering kindergarten.
    So what the parents are getting is daycare for their children with a few ABC's and maybe some nice coloring books.What the taxpayers are getting is hosed again. You ask any child education expert. One year of Preschool for most kids is not enough to get them ready. Throw in poor children,children from broken homes,children from home who don't value education especially if it's free and all the other problem's these kids have and you have the same problems you have in all the schools ,failing kids. One year of Preschool cannot change the child's homelife or life's problems they carry around because of their parent's. That's the truth.

  • April 26, 2008

    7:19 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Mike_In_Hartsel writes:

    But if it educates just one child, wouldn't it be worth it?

  • April 26, 2008

    1:22 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    vudumom writes:

    If the city wants to find quality preschools the only thing they have to do is walk in surprise them look around and ask for a curriculum. If they do not have a written curriculum in place for every level of Preschool then they are a glorified babysitter masquerading as a Preschool in order to charge more money.
    I don't think the city should spend taxpayer money to upgrade phoney businesses.

  • April 27, 2008

    8:54 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Brain writes:

    Preschool is just a code word for daycare; it would just cost more to monitor the daycares (I mean preschool). Some, maybe many parents already use public school primarily as a babysitter; this preschool thing is just expanding that. At least the citizens had to vote for it.

  • April 28, 2008

    6:45 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    vudumom writes:

    Brain, I agree 100% with your post. Most people think the word preschool means their children are learning something. Most are daycares. The money being spent is a waste of taxpayer money because alot of parents are looking for daycare and don't care what their kids learn. I think they were talking about expanding the daycare, I mean preschool hours to an all day system. So then the taxpayers can pay for all day daycare, I mean preschool.
    Even if these kids had one year of very ,very good preschool for most it would not be enough to get them ready for kindergarten. That is what the people who thought this program up fail to realize.
    When I was looking for a preschool for my children. I went to and interviewed over 25 ( preschools ). I found one that I would qualify as a preschool. What I saw was daycares pretending to be preschools. The kids were learning nothing. This is a huge government scam program to rip-off the taxpayers. i can't believe they fell for it.

  • April 28, 2008

    3:53 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    mytwosense writes:

    Why should kids even have to get ready for kindergarten? Used to be, kindergarten WAS pre-school, in terms of getting children ready to read and write.

    Personally, I think our economy that requires two income families has created this need for pre-schools, i.e., a place to keep our kids while we're at work, and it's a shame. Kids have years and years of structured schooling ahead of them, why are we adding even more years to this for two and three year olds, for goodness sake? Too much pressure on kids who should still be playing and having fun, instead of trapped inside a pre-school when they're barely out of diapers.

    The worst part is that, assuming most kids are going to pre-school now, apparently many schools expect children entering kindergarten to already know how to read and write. So this essentially makes parents who would not normally be inclined to send their kid to pre-school feel like they have to if they don't want their kid to be "behind."