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Governor Sean Parnell has announced his vetoes, which totaled some$67 million, and fiscal conservatives across the state likelycheered this move of frugality in an otherwise generous legislativesession. But at least one budget cut by Parnell and his administration isseriously shortsighted cuts to the pre-kindergarten programsacross the state. An appropriation of $1.2 million for Pre-Kgrants, $2.8 million for a parents-as-teachers program and $973,000for a pilot Pre-K expansion were all cut from the budget. At a recent presentation to the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce,Parnell reportedly expressed the opinion that the programs wereunder-researched and ideally, parents should be the ones teachingtheir young children, although he noted that some are not preparedfor that responsibility. And how. But there's a lot more to it than that. Spend some time in any classroom in Alaska - a week, say andyou'll notice that not all students are created equal, but teachersare tasked with finding a way to gear programs to include a massiverange of learning styles and abilities. It's hard enough just giventhe diversity in of human beings to teach 20 to 30 children all atthe same time. But if you add to that the variables of our society and the widerange of ways parents spend time with their children, the spanbecomes even wider. A child who is read to, not to mention properlyfed and cared for, has a massively greater capacity to learn thanthe child who is parked next to the television all day for thefirst four years of its life. That doesn't mean the tube-raised kidis any less intelligent. It just means that child's teacher has alot more work to do to get them up to speed with the rest of theclass. There are a zillion studies out there about the impacts of reading,singing and doing other enriching activities with yourpre-kindergarten-aged child. Anyone who has children knows thatthey are little sponges for information, no matter what theirlearning style. But if the opportunities aren't there, they can'tlearn much beyond Dora the Explorer's excellent Spanish immersionprogram no offense Dora fans, but really, children are way moreintelligent than that. So here's the rub for all you folks who are die-hard public radiolisteners, don't have TV, eat organic food religiously and havetaught your children a second language by age 4 your childrenare not immune to the impact of these budget cuts topre-kindergarten programs. Here's why. If there are even a handful of children in your child's class whoare struggling to grasp the basics from how to followinstruction to how to hold a crayon, guess who the teacher is goingto have to devote a large chunk of time to? Sure, there are teachers aides who help out, but the majority ofthe time, it is up to this one, brave soul who stands at the headof the classroom and tries to impart a thing or two on this diversecrowd before her or him. And that's where the pre-kindergartenoption really changes things. You can look at it from a purely financial perspective, points outNational Education Association Alaska's Barb Angaiak. She notesthat while it would be great if all children were properly educatedby their parents, that just isn't how the world is. Investing inearly education pays off, Angaiak said, because when children enterschool not ready to learn, it increases the need for interventionand remediation programs. Angaiak makes another valid point relating to the governor'sfunding of Alaskan Performance Scholarships. "Investing on the end of a children's educational career and not atthe beginning is questionable public policy," she wrote. Parnell said these pre-kindergarten programs were expanding toorapidly and more research needed to be done into how to best servethese students. Programs like Head Start got substantial fundingfrom the state. Let's hope that the state administrators followthrough on that statement and investigate how best to servechildren. Let's hope that one way or another, 4-year-olds who needhelp preparing for the coming year of learning get the help theyneed, even if they aren't old enough to vote. And next year, let's hope Parnell has researched the situationenough to realize that investing in children is never a waste ofmoney. Carey Restino is editor of The Bristol Bay Times , where this commentary first appeared. It is republished here withpermission. The views expressed here are the writer's own and are notnecessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch. Alaska Dispatch welcomes abroad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration,e-mail commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com . We are high quality suppliers, our products such as China iPhone USB Charging Adapter , Micro USB Vehicle Power Charger for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits iPhone USB Charging Adapter.
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