[Speed Gibson,
Saturday May 10, 2008 at 1:16pm]
Early Childhood and Family Education (ECFE)
In "Common Sense School Reform" (available in the Strom Showcase), author Frederick Hess talks of two kinds of reformers, the "Status Quo" reformer and the "Common Sense" reformer. The Status Quo Reformer is incremental, one who says follow me a little further and things will get better. But in government run education, this seldom happens; often, things get worse.
Is ECFE - Early Childhood & Family Education the exception? It a minimum, it is tremendously popular, including among my extended family. At the District 281 visioning sessions, there wasn't a single complaint, only a privoso, that it be free ECFE.
I posted yesterday that I'd like to see Community Education be split off from the school districts, to help them focus on their raison d'être, K-12 education. Would I want the same for ECFE, for the same reason?
Before I answer that, let us address how many educators point to the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Senior VP Art Rolnick's strong endorsement of the ECFE concept. Rolnick did not envision a one size fits all government solution, however, preferring multiple marketplace offerings. On the other hand, and unlike Community Education, there is something to be said for integration of an ECFE program and the K-12 schooling to follow, administratively at least.
Returning ECFE to the home and the private sector would not be a bad decision, an option available now. That the government schools offer unfair competition to such providers bothers me a bit. But the fact remains that "free" ECFE from the public schools is what the parents want, perhaps the districts' most successful offering. The customers are very happy and the costs are modest.
I therefore will now make the jump from K-12 to E-12 in my thinking.
Is ECFE - Early Childhood & Family Education the exception? It a minimum, it is tremendously popular, including among my extended family. At the District 281 visioning sessions, there wasn't a single complaint, only a privoso, that it be free ECFE.
I posted yesterday that I'd like to see Community Education be split off from the school districts, to help them focus on their raison d'être, K-12 education. Would I want the same for ECFE, for the same reason?
Before I answer that, let us address how many educators point to the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Senior VP Art Rolnick's strong endorsement of the ECFE concept. Rolnick did not envision a one size fits all government solution, however, preferring multiple marketplace offerings. On the other hand, and unlike Community Education, there is something to be said for integration of an ECFE program and the K-12 schooling to follow, administratively at least.
Returning ECFE to the home and the private sector would not be a bad decision, an option available now. That the government schools offer unfair competition to such providers bothers me a bit. But the fact remains that "free" ECFE from the public schools is what the parents want, perhaps the districts' most successful offering. The customers are very happy and the costs are modest.
I therefore will now make the jump from K-12 to E-12 in my thinking.