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Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Ohio moves to scrap all-day kindergarten
Some of former Gov. Ted Strickland’s education reforms appear to be following him out the door.
State Rep. Randy Gardner, R-Bowling Green, plans to introduce a bill that would scrap all-day kindergarten and the requirement that districts have smaller class sizes for kindergarten through third grade.
In just a few days, 30 Republican lawmakers in the 99-member House signed up to co-sponsor Gardner’s bill, a strong indicator of the bill’s support.
The all-day kindergarten requirement was pitched as a way to provide students with a solid foundation that would keep them from falling behind in the early grades. But it was a mandate without funds attached. Thirty area districts were granted a one-year waiver for this school year, giving administrators time to deal with cost and space issues before they are forced to comply.
Now they may not have to. Gardner hopes to pass the bill within six weeks to give districts lead time for preparing for the upcoming academic year. Schools are already registering kindergartners and planning for classroom space needs.
It’s still unclear how this could affect plans in the Northmont City Schools, where officials are considering placing a bond issue on the November ballot to help the district overcome its biggest barrier to offering all-day kindergarten: lack of space. Some of the funding would go toward a new early childhood development center.
Northmont Superintendent Sarah Zatik said the district still may opt to move ahead with those plans even if the state requirement goes away.
“The sad thing is, it’s good for kids,” she said. “From that standpoint, I think it’s a step backward.”
Cost is the main reason why more districts don’t do all-day kindergarten
Two weeks ago, the Centerville City Board of Education approved a resolution seeking a state waiver to delay implementing all-day, every-day kindergarten for the 2011-12 year.
The district was among 189 school districts that sought waivers for this current school year after Centerville school officials determined it would cost at least $1.6 million annually to implement a full-day program for its 563 kindergarten students.
The district offers half-day kindergarten but also has an extended-day program for youngsters who have been identified as those would benefit most from it, Superintendent Tom Henderson said.
“It’s hard to argue that more school isn’t good for everybody,” Henderson said, “but with no funding behind it, it makes it difficult for school districts to implement.”
In Beavercreek City Schools, implementing all-day kindergarten would add $1.3 million to the district’s budget annually. “The intention is good for all-day, every-day kindergarten, but the fact remains the dollars and cents aren’t there to do it,” Beavercreek Superintendent Nicholas Verhoff said.
Rob Nichols, spokesman for Gov. John Kasich, said the governor doesn’t support heavy-handed, unfunded mandates from Columbus and prefers to give local school districts the latitude to control how precious resources are deployed.
Removing mandates will be a way to relieve financial pressure from school districts, which will likely face further budget cuts once the state budget is set, said state Rep. Randy Gardner, R-Bowling Green, who plans to introduce a bill that would eliminate all-day kindergarten.
Beginning in state fiscal year 2012, no district may charge a fee for providing all-day kindergarten, Ohio Department of Education spokesman Patrick Gallaway said Tuesday
“Districts that had a tuition-based, all-day kindergarten program in place during the state fiscal year 2009 were able to continue charging tuition only through state fiscal year 2011,”Gallaway wrote in an e-mail.
Gardner’s bill would allow districts to continue charging tuition as a mechanism for funding all-day kindergarten. Some districts, including Worthington near Columbus and Perrysburg near Toledo, were facing the prospect of canceling their tuition-based, all-day kindergarten and then asking the state for a waiver to not offer it in 2011-12 because of the cost.
“If legislators are opposed to this bill, then I think the fair question to ask is, where would you save money,” Gardner said. “It is not an absolute repeal of the evidence-based model. In fact, the funding distribution mechanism remains in place,” Gardner said. His bill also steers clear of any changes to teacher pensions, collective bargaining or calamity days, he noted.
In the Ohio Senate, there is interest in repealing the all-day kindergarten mandate and continuing to allow districts to charge tuition to cover all-day kindergarten but no bill to accomplish that is on the table, said state Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Springboro.
Most Miami Valley districts don’t offer all-day kindergarten. West Carrollton, Milton-Union and Yellow Springs school districts this school year joined a dozen others already offering all-day kindergarten, including Dayton Public, which has offered it for decades.
West Carrollton Superintendent Rusty Clifford said they have no plans to turn back to half-day after seeing the difference in their students’ vocabulary, reading and writing. “By the middle of February, our students in an all-day program are already at the place where our half-day students were at the end of the year.”
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