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Earlier education

Boston Globe Editorial
Friday, December 3, 2004

SCHOOL OFFICIALS in Boston took a significant step toward helping both themselves and families with young children with the recent decision to add more than 450 prekindergarten seats to the current 1,000 next fall. The move creates a badly needed constituency for the school system and provides a framework for low-income children to succeed in their later studies.

School Superintendent Thomas Payzant has struggled with the topic of so-called K1 seats for 4-year-olds. In 1996, early in his tenure, he infuriated many parents after he slashed K1 slots. But the decision was necessary at the time in order to provide full-day kindergarten slots for all of the city's 5-year-olds. With that task accomplished, the school system is taking up the challenge of early-childhood education, especially as it relates to the stubborn problem of elevating the academic achievement of black youngsters, most of whom enter school with substantially lower vocabulary skills than white children.

"The number one way to close the achievement gap is to add K1 seats," said Payzant during a recent speech to leaders of the Boston Teachers Union. To drive home the seriousness of the initiative, Payzant told the union officials he would be in no mood to negotiate issues of class size until the system expands the number of slots for 4-year-olds. There are almost 4,000 seats for 5-year-olds in the so-called K2 classes.

Early Education for All, a Boston nonprofit group, cites research showing the long-term benefits of early-childhood education. Children who attend such classes are 40 percent less likely to need special education or to be held back a grade. A good start, according to the group, also leads to later success in the workplace. To say that preschoolers are the future of the system is not just a timeworn catch phrase. Enrollment has been declining steadily in Boston public schools. It now stands at 58,420 students, a drop of 3 percent from last year. The population decline is especially sharp at the elementary level. The addition of hundreds of 4-year-olds should help increase the levels of parent involvement, a necessary step in the improvement of any urban school district.

School officials estimate that materials, teacher training, transportation, personnel, and facilities preparation for 21 new K1 classrooms will cost $3 million in the first year. Pressure may build to pare costs by operating without the paraprofessionals who perform many routine duties and thereby leaving teachers more time to teach. Such corner-cutting would be a mistake. Youngsters arriving from low-income families will need extra attention.

The long-term benefits of expanding K1 classrooms should be substantial both for the young ones getting ready to learn and an underweight school system that needs to fill out.

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