Press: Compete Or Perish

For good reasons, the Coeur d’Alene School Board shot down the idea of a pay-for-K program. For better reasons, the proposal to offer extra kindergarten for a fee was floated in the first place. Let’s start at the beginning. District administrators brought forward the idea that parents would have the option of enrolling their kids in all-day kindergarten for roughly $350 per month per child. Officials figured that the program would need just 45 students to break even, and could soon generate several hundred thousand dollars for the district each year. Board members pointed out several problems with the proposal, ranging from ignoring the constitutional mandate to provide free public education to concerns about unfairly competing with private education providers. But we applaud the impetus behind the proposal, and encourage more of the same moving forward/ Coeur d’Alene Press Editorial Board . More here.

Question: What do you think of the pay-for-K proposal?