It's very clear that our school districts need an awakening. |
Miller Place argues they do fine. Maybe they do since many of their children go to pre-school. But not all kids in Miller Place went to pre-school. We want to close the education gap ? that's the main reason we want to make it mandatory. |
The school district doesn't have to be the provider. We will work with a consortium of people to use libraries and universities to house pre-K programs. |
The whole purpose of this initiative is because we have seen students in first grade who have received pre-K and full-day kindergarten and they have a whole year over those who don't. They are a year behind and it only gets worse from there. |
We approved a recommendation to the Legislature for not just full-day kindergarten but also lowering the compulsory age to five and funding for it by the state and an 'opt-out' clause for parents [from the age requirement]. |