Would you send your kids to kindergarten if it was going to cost you money? It's the only choice provided to parents in Hudson, NH, the last city in the contiguous U.S. not to offer free kindergarten to its children.
The city of twenty-five thousand has been ordered to comply with a 2007 New Hampshire law calling for universal kindergarten by this fall, but district officials are bucking the order. They need more money to make it happen, they say.
I'm honestly surprised there are place left in the U.S. where school wouldn't be offered free of charge to families. It's not just Hudson. There are nine other school districts in the Live Free or Die State that will have to add universal kindergarten this fall (the other districts have already started making provisions to do so). There's also one school district in Alaska that does not provide kindergarten to its kids (gee, think Gov. Sarah Palin might want to take a look at that one now that she has some extra time on her hands?).
. What ever happened to the right to an education (yes, I know, it's not in the Constitution - but it should be)? I was equally surprised several years ago when I first learned that kindergarten wasn't mandatory. Having been enrolled at five, having had my brother follow me at five, having heard about my parents' kindergarten classrooms, I mistakenly thought this was a given. Not so. My husband is one of millions of Americans who didn't attend kindergarten (he's the one who first told me about it).
But keeping your child home for the year, or opting for a private institution rather than public is one thing. Not being offered the service at all? It sounds like another case of someone putting the priorities on money instead of on kids.
Study results have varied on the benefit of full-day kindergarten for kids, the most recent report surmising that the good it does disappears by the time the kids are in eighth grade. But if ninety-nine point nine percent of American kids are given free kindergarten, it stands to reason that the Hudson kids are being discriminated against by not being afforded the same opportunities.
For the same services provided for other kids, Hudson parents are expected to pay as much as $4,000 to $8,000 at a private institution. More than ninety percent of the parents pay up, but not everyone can afford the fees. The economic downturn is only making it harder. Ironically that's just why the city of Hudson says they can't make the change.
Despite offers of state aid, Hudson wants more. Considering the taxpayers are already being burdened (via the demand of private tuition costs), wouldn't it be more appropriate to levy a tax on the citizens that would go across the board and make education available to every kid?
A little reminder to the city of Hudson - parents aren't the only one who benefit from their children getting an education. So how about stepping up for the sake of all citizens - even those under four feet tall?
Image: Mary Mail
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