Where did all the federal education money go? Long time passing...

[Pamela Ann Cameron]

     In the Journal of the American Planning Association, Duncan D. Chaplin reviews a book entitled The Birth of Head Start:  Preschool Education Policies in the Kennedy and Johnson Adminstrations by Maris A. Vinovskis.  According to both authors, Head Start is an example of a government program that began with good intentions but was ineffective at best. "Millions of dollars were spent for research and evaluation."  Because of political pressures the program had "reduced planning efforts."  The major goal at the beginning of Head Start was to increase young learners' self esteem.  The preschool program "lacked a recommended curriculum," and learning of the alphabet and academic achievement were simply not included. While the program earned "failing marks in its evaluations," changes were not made.  Unfortunately, typical of large government programs, funding just continued.  "Within six months of the legislation being passed, over one-half of a million children were being served."  Mr. Chaplin suggests that large government initiatives in the future "be based on more careful planning and research."

     My question becomes, will government ever get it?  We cannot just throw money at problems. It seems that this truth would be even more apparent given the fact that our economy is struggling.  If government wants to be part of the solution to problems in education, they need to talk to local school districts and local educators and local parents before turning on the money spiggot. Successful intervention requires research and planning in advance of spending.

     I would appreciate your thoughts on this issue of preparing preschool children for school.  Should this be a job for parents, for private preschools, or for public intervention?

 

The quotes in this post come from the following source:

The Journal of the American Planning Association, Autumn 2007, Vol. 73, No. 4

[Pamela Ann Cameron]

     Since I have asked for your opinion, I felt it might be beneficial for me to express my own opinion on this issue.  I firmly believe that Americans in general expect their government to do too many things for them.  The issue of education is no exception to this problem.  I have three adult children.  I taught all three of my children the alphabet and how to read before they started school, 1st grade.  I read to my children quite a lot.  As a consequence, they all three love to read books and still do regularly.  I exposed my preschool children to lots of outings where they could benefit from new experiences.  All of these things help to prepare a child to be successful in school.  Young learners perform better if they can tie the new things that they are learning to something they have already been exposed to. 

     While I do not expect every parent to teach their child how to read, I do not think it is too much to ask parents to teach their children the alphabet and to read to them.  If parents cannot read, then they need to actively seek out adult reading programs in their community.  Families need to take more responsibility for their own children's education.  Teachers cannot be expected to do it all in a class full of 22 or more students.  If parents are unable to help their kids, then communities should be proactive in bridging that gap.  Nevertheless, government should not be responsible for early childhood education.  I believe parents should be.  Once again, what do you think?

[1q2w0gmzyju4z]

i completely agree with your opinion that the government should not just throw the money to solve problems that not be easily solved. Sometimes they money that they give could be more than enough for such, or sometimes too less that they cannot do anything with it to make it better. I think the best way to solve this problem to prevent it to happen in the future or to use the government's money wisely and effectively is that parents and teachers should come together to brainstorm and work together and plan for a good solution for the students. This is because parents and teachers would know best about the school because they are the ones that are more involved with the school and the teachers. 

 

I also agree with you. My father actually helped me a lot with homework when I was younger, such as reading the alphabets and writing. My mother too would help from time to time. And yes, you are right that teachers will not be able to handle or giving an equal amount of time for each student. However, the government should be involved with this too because children are the future of a nation. If the government does not form a strict law or rules for the teachers, then students will not be able to learn the materials that they have to learn. Primary education is very important for young students. Parents should also take the role of being a teacher to their kids as well. I don't know if this answers your question or am I understanding the article correctly. 

[0a8yxr36a7lh0]

This is a really good article Pam and it shows one of the major flaws with our education system. Like you said, let's just throw money at the problem, millions and millions of dollars, and everything will just be ok, right? WRONG! It also perfectly highlights one of the major flaws in our federal government. The government gets power-hungry and money-happy and gets in the states' business on education. If education was a state issue, instead of a federal government mandated problem, education might actually get better in our country. The power to educate and control how we are educated was originally a reserved right for individual states anyways, so what happened? Does the Constitution just go out the window because we have the Department of Education? It shouldn't.

[0z87rm8mahiji]

I agree with your opion. The government indeed has the tendency to throw money at certain issues. But when it comes to the education system government officials should take a closer look at the problem, and do a research on where the issue lies. To solve a problem one needs to know where the issue is located inorder to repair it.

I believe that this job should be approached by all three parties, by the parents and by the private preschools and public intervention. The first step is parents should be involved in there child's education. By spending time and money in their child's education. The second step is for the federal and state government to do a intervention, and fund the money where it is necessary. This would produce more teachers that will be willing to teach children, and provide them with better education. Even though a public intervention is needed we still need the schools the adjust their curriculums to higher standards. Not only in private schools, but in all the school districts in the nation. To provide every child with a  proper equivalent academic career. If all three of these parties would work together, and find a good solution to the problem, the government will safe money tremendously.

[2ge71zj32lmu5]

While I agree that the government should not just throw money at programs without careful research, completely doing away with programs like headstart would be a huge injustice to many underprivileged children in our country. I grew up in a great home and excelled in school. However, my parents were well-educated themselves. As I worked my way through the school system, they were not only able to help me with things like homework and applications, but they also passed on their love of learning to me. They understood the importance of education. Unfortunately though, a lot of kids don't grow up in this environment.

 

I think that ideally, yes, parents would teach their children to read and take responsibility for their education. But the reality is that we live in a country where many parents, for whatever reason, are just not able to do that. Children are born into cycles of poverty, drug/alcohol abuse, violence, and illiteracy and don't have a chance of succeeding in school unless the government provides some sort of program like head start.

 

Now, I am not saying that headstart is a perfect program or that we don't some serious educational reform. I just think it is very dangerous to put all responsibility on the parents. Parental/personal responsibility aside, we owe it to these children to give them a chance to even get their feet on the ladder of success. I strongly believe that a huge key to breaking the cycle of poverty in America is through education. Like Anne said, children are the future of our nation and it is so critical that we find a program that works and invest in them at an early age. Also, someone mentioned that community programs should be in place to help parents teach their children- where is the money for those programs going to come from? The government. I personally think reforming head start is a better place to start.