Comments on: Things Change: Preschool in New York

By: Leonie Mullings

Leonie Mullings — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 02:53:54 +0000

My daughter is four years old and need to attend preschool

By: Esther

Esther — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 15:15:26 +0000

@ Felipe: I don’t think that the free market can guarantee a satisfying supply and demand of education. As wonderful as certain private daycares are, they will not be affordable for many. Our neighborhood is in the process of catching up. The private sector has been able to greatly expand housing, but neither the public nor the private sector has been able to keep up with the pace of building and offer enough public / private schools for the booming community. A bit more social planning could have gone a long way, in my opinion. And especially if the community wants to stay healthy, it needs more public schools, in addition to charter and private schools.
@ Silke: Yes, good quality education, especially from very early on, should be a right for both parents and children. In fact, New York State introduced the public preschool program after a successful test run in the state and research findings that all pointed to the benefits for children, especially those in poor, less educated backgrounds. If the state wants to offer high quality public education, it needs to be financed by taxes. But for so many Americans saying the word tax is like swearing in church. Generations have been brainwashed by politicians that tax is bad, the state is too big, and governmental involvement is socialist. There could be a much more sophisticated public school system that can work for all, if we would step aside from false ideological discussions and work with fact-based findings and real life experience.

By: Silke Steinhilber

Silke Steinhilber — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 11:16:52 +0000

In my view, the article, but even more so the response, really is about the role of the state. Sorry, but high quality childcare will not be a “business that supports itself” – or only for very few. And studies have clearly shown that children from less educated family backgrounds benefit the most from good childcare services.
We had an interesting debate last year here in Berlin: The government expanded full subsidies (ie parents pay nothing but 1.5 Euros per day for food for childcare services of 5-7 hours) to now cover the last two years before primary school (starts in the summer of the year when the child turns six). One year had been fully subsidized already since 2009.
For the years that are not fully subsidized, fees are sliding based on a family’s income.
The interesting argument now was about parental preferences: higher quality services (essentially more teachers) or full subsidies of the fees, with a large group of parents arguing for the first (but in the end they were overruled).
What does this show: I think a main point really is about our expectations toward the state, and about political priorities, which are not directly linked to the fiscal situation. Berlin is a poor city. Nevertheless it was possible during the last years to expand spending on childcare services. Not to the extent, and in exactly the ways that I would have wished, and in some ways the last changes only reversed earlier cuts, but fortunately we are far from considering childcare a business. Good quality education, from very early on should be a right, as much of a child, as of its parents.

By: Felipe Pait

Felipe Pait — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 15:30:49 +0000

Don’t know about New York. In S Paulo, Externato Aldeia worked for all of us. In Boston, Pine Village Preschool. Neither was cheap, but they were priced reasonably and both were wonderful! If there is a lack of adequate preschools at a price people are willing to pay in NY, good teachers should see starting one as a business opportunity, as did the founders of Pine Village and of Aldeia. Now if your neighborhood is not willing to pay what it costs to have quality daycare…. or if there is so little interest that such a business can’t support itself….. then there’s something wrong with the community.

http://www.externatoaldeia.com.br/

http://mybilingualpreschool.com/