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|  | News Items Posted On: March 20, 2006
Showing stories 1 - 3 of 3.
PA - Casey proposes national early-childhood program
Submitted by emohan. Posted on Monday, March 20 @ 12:12:06 EST by emohan
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Democratic Senate candidate Bob Casey Jr. yesterday detailed a plan for early-childhood education that would direct $8 billion in federal money to the states for pre-kindergarten programs.
The proposal would be one of his first bills if he defeats Republican Sen. Rick Santorum in November, Casey told child-care providers at a Center City forum of the Delaware Valley Association for the Education of Young Children.
Casey said possible funding sources for the program, which would also raise accountability standards, include trimming corporate subsidies and eliminating the tax cut for wealthiest individuals. "We are going to... make it a national priority," Casey said.
Full text available at the Philadelphia Inquirer
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UT - District hopes to add more preschools
Submitted by emohan. Posted on Monday, March 20 @ 12:09:01 EST by emohan
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Two five-year-old preschoolers practice with their fingers writing their names into huge dollops of shaving cream. When Scarlet Noorlander finishes the letters in her first name, her teacher, Amber Hovik, gives a cheer.
"You did it," Hovik says. "That looks very nice. Way to go."
Hovik, who teaches preschool at Westmore Elementary School, hopes by the end of the year her students will be able to identify and write all the letters in the alphabet and identify shapes such as a rhombus and oval.
Such skills are necessary for kindergarten, which is more academically rigorous than ever, she said.
"(Preschool) is almost like kindergarten that was 10 years ago," Hovik said.
Westmore is one of eight elementary schools in the Alpine School District with a preschool program. All eight of those schools receive Title I money for low-income children, which means the federal government picks up the tab for the program.
To be sure, the preschools are popular — and have long waiting lists. Ten children are waiting for an opening for preschool at Westmore.
Now, Alpine school leaders, convinced that preschool helps children become more prepared socially and academically for kindergarten, want to add preschool programs to some of the other 43 elementary schools. If the plan is realized, the classes would start this fall.
"We're looking at expanding our preschools to non-Title I schools, probably 4 or 5 non-Title I schools," said Kathy Porter, an Alpine District administrator. "They'll probably be tuition-based, with possibly a sliding-scale tuition so low-income families would pay a lower rate."
Full text available at Deseret News
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MA - Child care costs strain single mom's resources
Submitted by emohan. Posted on Monday, March 20 @ 11:57:39 EST by emohan
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Joan Leib, who has degrees in music and English from Oberlin College, works as a technical writer for a software company in Acton. Up until now, her $53,000 salary has been sufficient to cover the bills, but just barely.
Leib, who turned 32 last week, has wanted children ''since I was a kid myself basically," she said. She made arrangements with a sperm donor, putting it in writing that she would not ask him for child support. Her son, Isaac, was born in 2003. She is expecting a second child in April, by the same sperm donor, ''because I think it is important for everyone to have siblings," Leib said.
While conceding she has chosen a difficult path, Leib says she has a ''wonderful example" in her mother, who at Leib's age took a similar course, choosing to raise a daughter and son alone.
The Globe paired Leib with Rick Miller, a fee-only financial planner and owner of Sensible Financial Planning in Cambridge. The problem, he found, was not a surge in gas prices but what she will be spending on day care.
Last year, day care for Isaac in Acton four days a week cost Leib $15,000. ''When I do the math for four days a week, it comes out to about $8 or $9 an hour. I really love his teachers. If you think about it that way, I feel like I wish I could pay them more," she said.
After her second child is born, child care costs will rise to $35,000, because infant care is more expensive, and could cost as much as $45,000 if Leib moves the children into comparable day care closer to home in Cambridge, which she was considering.
''This notion of paying $35,000 to $45,000 a year for day care is not realistic," Miller said.
Full text available at the Boston Globe
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