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The Crayola's on the wall as pols push preschool plan

By Kevin Rothstein
Friday, April 30, 2004

The prospect of universal preschool in Massachusetts received a giant boost yesterday when the House unanimously passed a measure to create a new Department of Early Education and Care by 2006.

"Children ought to hit first grade ready to learn and that's not happening for every child in the state,'' said state Rep. Marie St. Fleur (D-Dorchester), a co-sponsor of the plan.

The amendment for next year's budget lays the ``foundation for the foundation'' of preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds, said House Speaker Thomas Finneran, who shepherded the legislation to approval. The measure still has to be approved by the Senate.

"We want to make sure every child has access,'' Finneran said.

While the amendment only calls for a $90,000 budget in the first year, advocates campaigning for early education estimate that a universal preschool program will cost $1.2 billion over some 10 years to create and another $1.2 billion a year to run.

"We're very excited,'' said Margaret Blood, president of Strategies for Children, the organization that is lobbying for the preschool plan.

Their blueprint calls for four hours a day of free preschool for all 240,000 3- and 4-year-olds in the state. Additional schooling could be paid for, with cost determined by parent income.

The biggest practical hurdle will be the requirement that every preschool teacher have a bachelor's degree.

An initiative to be announced today by state education leaders will help with that problem, Blood said, by letting day-care workers transfer their community college credits to state colleges.

Human Services Secretary Ronald Preston praised Finneran's intentions but said a new agency was not needed. In any case, he wasn't prepared to endorse universal preschool.

"Not all families want their children in preschool and there needs to be some respect for that,'' he said.

Finneran said his amendment might follow some of the recommendations made by Judge Margot Botsford in her report on Massachusetts education, but that he crafted the plan independent of the judge's decision.

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