Posted by Matt Rooney On March 04, 2016
By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
We’ve been down this road before. Back in in 1998, Save Jerseyans, the U.S. experimented with full-day kindergarten via the lauded Head Start program.
The experiment failed. Miserably.
Read the government’s own Head Start Impact Study Final Report which reported “no significant impacts were found for math skills, prewriting, children’s promotion, or teacher report of children’s school accomplishments or abilities.” They spent $7 billion per year on nothing.
More like False Start.
But despite the mountain of evidence proving it’s an expensive, valueless exercise, Trenton Democrats are resurrecting the cause right here in New Jersey. Shocker.
Senator Teresa Ruiz’s bill is a $78 million plan to force the 20% of New Jersey’s public school districts not currently offering full-day kindergarten into doing so. Her estimate is low. You’ll feel it in your property tax bills soon enough if it becomes law. The superintendent of Wayne’s schools reports that the proposal will cost $2.1 million for his district alone and likely bust the 2% cap unless major cuts are made in other areas.
https://savejersey.com/2016/03/full-day-kindergarten-new-jersey/