More harm than good likely to come from Pre-Kindergarten SC School. Experts say No! Statistics prove it!

SC Governor Henry McMaster has decided that SC taxpayers need to invest in putting more money into a full day public education for low income parents’ 4 year old children. This proposal involves spending at least $53 million of taxpayer funds in hopes of improving student educational outcomes.

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster is calling for a Pre-Kindergarten school using $53 million of taxpayer funds.

Our Governor is all on board with thinking that by expanding a present failing SC public education by making four year old children attend a full day government sponsored pre-kindergarten program is somehow going to improve the final outcome of a K-12 education. Wonder if he thinks owners of a failing restaurant that has terrible ratings should spend more money and open up another franchise?

History shows SC legislators thought by adding kindergarten it would improve the final outcome of a quality high school graduate… but nope, evidence shows students graduating from SC high schools are not prepared for college or the workforce. And, exit test scores are stagnant. So then, SC legislators continued that thinking pattern and added half day 4 year old pre-school programs… but nope, evidence proves that hasn’t helped. Now Governor McMaster wants taxpayers to believe that making young 4 year old children stay a full day in an educational setting will magically make them workforce and college/career ready when they graduate. The question now becomes, what’s next when this doesn’t work… full day 3 year old pre-K?… or maybe he thinks low income parents should just hand their children over to the state at birth and taxpayers foot the bill for “training” the child to be “workforce” ready. The question is, will the state then data mine the young child, and ultimately peg hole the child into a job the state decides the child should have upon graduation? Doesn’t China does this? Last time I checked China was a communist nation!

Communist China helps conform every student’s mind into the Communist mold to benefit the state.

Why do we have tax supported public schools? I thought children were sent to our k-12 public schools for a well-rounded education to prepare them for whatever their ‘pursuit of happiness’ would be. It seems the shift since No Child Left Behind and then Common Core Standards now known as SC College/Career Ready Standards has been in place that now public education’s purpose has fundamentally transformed to prepare students to be cogs in a wheel–to be human capital–and to serve the needs for future economic development enrichment for the state.

Is the S.C. model for Human Capital funneling your children into a work pigeon hole with no way out?

Do you like your child being considered as human capital? Do you want the state to push your child toward a career “they” think is in your child’s best interest? Is that all you as a parent aspire for your child upon finishing k-12, is to be workforce ready?

Gov. McMaster was quoted by the Post and Courier saying, “If they’re not ready when they go to kindergarten, they’re never going to catch up.” “Catch up” to what Governor? “Catch up“ just to be peg holed via computer tests to follow what the state says a child should be when they grow up?

Where is the empirical evidence that putting a 4 year old, whose family is poor, in a public school setting all day long will improve that child’s eventual future? I have yet to see one single study that equates attending a full day of public school at the age of 4 that guarantees them a successful life. In fact, there are plenty of studies out there that show there is No substantial proof that a child who attended public school at age 4 all day is better off when graduating high school than a child who does not.

SC Policy Council wrote an article in 2013 entitled, “Why More Spending on 4K Education Won’t Work.” That article is still relevant today. The article stated,

“Early education programs in South Carolina have proved to be an ineffective supplement for a school system that is in need of far deeper reform. If legislators truly wish to help children across the state, they should scale back efforts on a program of doubtful benefit and instead focus on programs that expand school choice – a policy that has both saved taxpayer dollars and improved educational outcomes.”

Then we have Brookings Institute, a non profit organization based in Washington D.C that conducts in depth researches stating,

“Under the most favorable scenario for state per-K that can be constructed from these data, increasing pre-K enrollment by 10 percent would raise a state’s adjusted NAEP [National Assessment of Educational Progress] scores by a little less than one point five years later and have no influence on the unadjusted NAEP scores.”

John Rosemond

John Rosemond, is a leading American columnist and author on parenting who has authored 15 books on child rearing. He believes in the short term giving to low income family’s children as an early intervention via pre-school that will show individual growth. However, the gains being made are NOT permanent and by third grade the children who had no pre-K experience were not achieving any better than those who had attended a pre-school program.

This 2018 study of the Tennessee Voluntary pre-K Program, entitled “Effects of the Tennessee Pre-kindergarten Program On Children’s Achievement and Behavior Through Third Grade” stated,

“Our data suggest that children were responsive to their first introduction to formal schooling, whether in pre-k or kindergarten, no matter what their skills upon entry. But their 1st through 3rd grade instructional experiences did not maintain their momentum. It is doubtful that anything done in pre-k can have sustained effects if the gains made there are not supported and extended in the schooling that follows.”

In an article dated November 30, 2018, by Kerri McDonald, an adjunct scholar at The Cato Institute, regular Forbes contributor, and author of “Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom, states,

“As schooling becomes more rigid and consumes more of childhood, it is causing increasing harm to children. Many of them are unable to meet unrealistic academic and behavioral expectations at such a young age, and they are being labeled with and medicated for delays and disorders that often only exist within a schooled context. Parents should push back against this alarming trend by holding onto their kids longer or opting out of forced schooling altogether.”

There are also a plethora of psychologists who agree that pushing academics on young children too soon is not in a child’s best interest. A leading psychologist on young child development Peter Gray, PhD., in a recent article entitled, “The Decline of Play and Rise in Children’s Mental Disorders” states,

“By depriving children of opportunities to play on their own, away from direct adult supervision and control, we are depriving them of opportunities to learn how to take control of their own lives. We may think we are protecting them, but in fact we are diminishing their joy, diminishing their sense of self-control, preventing them from discovering and exploring the endeavors they would most love, and increasing the odds that they will suffer from anxiety, depression, and other disorders.”

It seems our Governor has not done his homework. Has he taken the time to fully evaluate the push for full day pre-K for four year olds? Or is he pandering for votes from parents that just want a free day care situation while they are living off taxpayer welfare? Or maybe he’s pandering to corporations who make huge contributions to his campaign funds? I’d like to think he’s just not done his homework and actually thinks this is a great idea to improve SC educational outcomes for students even though it is most likely based on faulty advice from the SC Education Oversight Committee. After all, the SC Education Oversight Committee doesn’t have such a great track record of advising the SC Dept of Education on education reforms that actually improve our ratings in SC now have they?

Yes, SC needs to be bold in making quality education reforms to improve the SC student outcomes. But this reporter, who happens to have a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education and 29 years of experience teaching first grade, does not have any confidence that taxpayer funds spent on fully funding a four year old pre-K will have the effect he’s hoping for. In my professional opinion this is just another SC boondoggle!

Children shouldn’t be guinea pigs, especially when there is evidence that the actual implementation could do more harm than good. SC children and taxpayers deserve proven educational reforms that will indeed lead to better children’s educational outcome and give the parents and taxpayers confidence in a good return on their investment, and not another expensive boondoggle.

Johnnelle Raines is a retired public school teacher of 29 years in the classroom. She is also a Board Member of the United States Parents Involved in Education (USPIE).