A real head start

Kathy Lee put her first child into preschool “for literally 15 minutes, because of the social pressure.” Soon after leaving the parking lot, she turned around and fetched her son.

“He is 3 years old,” Lee says she thought to herself. “There is nothing he cannot get at home by cooking and measuring and sorting socks.”

Lee knows this from long experience. The mother of 10 and author of The Homegrown Preschooler has taught and managed preschools, and now instructs mothers and teachers on how to nurture the little wigglers.

New advocacy organization Save the Children Action Network has launched ads in Iowa and New Hampshire, hoping to push presidential candidates to support government programs for poor children from birth to age 4. But research suggests such programs aren’t that effective.

One study found that watching Sesame Street was as beneficial for children’s academic progress as Head Start, the federal preschool program for low-income children. The federal government spends approximately $8 billion a year on Head Start.

Another study found that sending low-income parents three text messages a week with simple literacy activities advanced their preschoolers’ learning by two to three months. An example: “Tip: Say two words to your child that start with the same sound, like happy and healthy. Ask: can you hear the ‘hhh’ sound in happy and healthy?”

What research does find most effective for tots’ long-term success is having a married biological mother and father. Other legs up include the number of books in a child’s home and eating meals together as a family.

“Preschool teachers are trying to recreate the home,” Lee noted. “Home is the most natural place to let children discover and have a sense of wonder. If we give those children those early years, they are going to be well-adjusted adults, socially, emotionally, and cognitively.”

Charters attacked

School had been in session three days when Brenda McDonald, principal of Pride Prep in Spokane, Wash., heard the state Supreme Court had declared charter schools like hers ineligible for public funds because their boards are not elected.

Her first reaction was “kind of disbelief,” she said. The decision came Friday afternoon before Labor Day weekend, and McDonald spent the holiday calling teachers, lawyers, and parents to figure out and communicate “a plan of attack.”

Donors quickly pledged enough money to keep Washington state’s nine charters running this academic year, so their 1,200 students haven’t missed a day. Forty-two states have legalized charters, which are public schools independent of local school districts that must accept all comers.

On average, charter schools cost less and produce equal or better reading and math test scores than their traditional counterparts. Pride Prep offers a longer school year, more arts instruction, and smaller enrollment than local Spokane schools, where McDonald worked for 22 years.

“[Spokane] is not Detroit or Chicago, where our traditional schools are dilapidated and kids are not getting school supplies,” McDonald said. “But even with that we could just not meet all the kids’ needs. To get kids into unique programs they had to almost fail.”

Washington’s nine charters have been urging parents and students to ask for a special legislative session that keeps the schools alive permanently.

Charters’ biggest opponents are teachers unions, which helped bring the Washington lawsuit and are especially active in Seattle. The same week the charter decision came down, Seattle teachers union members went on strike for an 18 percent raise, leaving that city’s 50,000 kids with an extended summer vacation and their parents scrambling to find childcare. —J.P.