Fans of public preschools have hopes for task force

BOISE – Advocates for an early childhood education system in Idaho have high hopes for a legislative task force on the topic that’s to be appointed next week.

“Forty states are ahead of us already,” said Eldon Wallace, noting that Idaho is one of several states that spend no state money on preschool programs. “We’re in a dead-heat race not to be last in getting some state funding for early childhood education.”

Idaho law prohibits school districts from spending money on preschool. Lawmakers have tried unsuccessfully to change that prohibition over the years. Sen. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, has repeatedly introduced legislation that would lower the minimum age for schoolchildren from 5 years to 4.

Schroeder said Thursday that the task force outcome would depend on who was appointed. The task of choosing its members goes to the House Speaker Bruce Newcomb, R-Burley, and Senate President Pro Tem Robert Geddes, R-Soda Springs.

“If they put people who have been involved with the issue of pre-K legislation, that actually want to write a bill and go forward, then we can do it,” said Schroeder, who hopes to get a spot on the panel himself. “If they have it loaded with eight people who are all against pre-K (kindergarten), we should save our money. We should have one meeting and pull the plug.”

Geddes said he doesn’t know how many people will be on the panel. All will be legislators.

“Hopefully we’ll have a broad geographic cross-section,” he said.

It won’t be Idaho’s first task force on the subject of early education, or preschool. Schroeder served on a panel with the same mission about a half-dozen years ago. No preschool program came of that.

But Geddes said things might be different this time around, because the issue has had national exposure.

Idaho is one of eight states that doesn’t spend any state money on early education, according to the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Several people set out at the beginning of this year’s legislative session to change that, including a group of local business leaders who cited studies showing Idaho would save money later on if it invested in children in their earliest years.

Sen. Mike Burkett, D-Boise, called in national experts to talk to lawmakers, and introduced a bill that would move the state closer to allowing preschool. That bill, like the others, went nowhere.

Burkett requested the task force. It will help advocates get the message across that preparing kids for kindergarten saves states and school districts money later on, said Wallace, who works with Burkett.

While policymakers discuss the matter, many Idaho school districts have already started offering preschool.

The Lakeland School District in Rathdrum offers a limited program every winter for 4 and 5-year-olds entering kindergarten the following year. It offers hour-long classes two evenings a week for parents and kids on subjects like the alphabet and books, said Ron Schmidt, assistant superintendent.

“We’ve got children showing up their first day of kindergarten that are well prepared and ready to take on their kindergarten class work, and we have other children that have not had a lot of preparation in the home … and they’re behind from the first day,” said Schmidt. “That’s a concern.”

The Lakeland district used private grants to run the program for the first few years, but that funding ran out and now parents pay $50, said Schmidt. As far as he knows, no families have stayed away because they couldn’t pay.

“We offer two sessions in each of our five elementary schools, and they’re full.” Children who have been through the program do better on the Idaho Reading Indicator, a standardized test, than those who haven’t, he added.

Wallace praised the Lakeland program, but said schools should be able to offer more.

“It’s like a cram course in pre-K, for heaven’s sake,” he said.