Gov. Lincoln Almond is expected to present a state budget blue print for 2000 this week that includes $2 million in seed money for the development of full-day kindergarten programs in selected cities and towns.
The funds, if approved by the General Assembly, would be distributed as grants with an “emphasis on urban areas where test scores have been traditionally low,” Almond said at a recent press conference at the Captain Gerald G. Hunt Primary School in Central Falls, where two full- and nine half-day kindergarten classes are underway.
Peter McWalters, the state’s commissioner of education, said through a spokesperson that he guessed the money would help pay for programs in “three to four districts, seriously.” However, he stressed that the funds are only a “starting point” in a multi-year effort.
Besides Central Falls, eight Rhode Island communities offer at least one full-day kindergarten class. They are Newport, Middletown, Providence, Warwick, West Warwick, Westerly, Cranston and New Shoreham (Block Island). Of the communities’ 10,600 eligible children, almost 1,500, or less than 15 percent, are enrolled in full-day kindergarten, according to the state Department of Education.
“I think it is time as a state to seriously move in the direction,” of full-day kindergarten for all residents, McWalters told reporters and about a dozen pint-size audience members at the Jan. 29 press conference. At Hunt, students who attend full-day classes are chosen by lottery, said school Principal Carolyn Roseman, adding there is neither space nor funding for additional classes.
Central Falls is not alone in its limitations, McWalters said. That’s why the state would administer funds in the form of “incentive grants” to districts whose strategic plans show they’ve made full-day kindergarten a priority, he said.
The state Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education would set the criteria, McWalters said.
Almond said the purpose of all-day kindergarten is two-fold: to better prepare children for elementary school and to spare parents the cost of day care for children enrolled in half-day programs.
“There is tremendous brain development in children between one and six years old,” Almond said. “We haven’t paid enough attention to those first five years.”
Jean Healey, a kindergarten teacher for 25 years, said the full-day programs at Hunt, implemented nine years ago, have had a positive impact on both performance and attendance.
“I saw such a tremendous change in what the children were able to learn in the length of a day,” Healey said. “And attendance is excellent.”
By the time children are physically settled in a half-day program, “your actual instruction time is very small,” she said.
What’s more, “attendance is excellent,” because fewer families leave the city during the course of a year. The programs help “stabilize families because they value the service,” she said.
Almond said he considers the proposed funding an extension of the Starting Right program initiated with a $1 million in last year’s state budget. The plan raised the income limit for families seeking financial assistance for child care and increased training for providers, among other things.
“Good child care,” he said, “is good for the economy.”
