The time is now for full-day kindergarten

To The Editor:

This past week the Johnston School Committee rolled out its budget for the 2015-16 school year. Included in this budget was the addition of full-day kindergarten for the first time.

As Johnston is only one of a handful of districts in this state that do not offer full-day K, I am grateful to our school committee for taking this step and putting the needs of our children first by incorporating this long-needed and essential program into the budget for the next fiscal year.

Over the last several weeks I have spoken with many of our town leaders who have expressed their support for this initiative as well as many elated parents. There seems to be a general consensus that the children of Johnston need and deserve access to quality early childhood education, which includes full-day K. There is also a voluminous amount of educational research and a preponderance of evidence to support the argument that the benefits of full-day K will translate not only into improved educational outcomes for our children but into cost savings for the taxpayers as well.

This research and evidence indicate that by addressing achievement gaps early on we can greatly reduce the chances that a child will require significantly more costly interventions later. Given the fact that Rhode Island has embarked on a major educational reform agenda over the last five years, which includes the transition to the Common Core State Standards, I am wary as a parent that these already pernicious achievement gaps may become even wider. With the introduction of PARCC testing, we are now using an assessment tool designed and calibrated to measure student achievement based on these rigorous new standards that are written to and predicated upon the assumption that our children have had access to a content-rich and demanding early childhood curriculum, including full-day kindergarten.

For these reasons the proposed state budget for next year provides additional funding to the small number of communities that do not offer full-day K, including Johnston. This money, in conjunction with state funds already appropriated through the Full Day Kindergarten Accessibility Act passed by the General Assembly in 2012, will greatly ease the burden to the town and ultimately save the taxpayers money in the long run. The numbers speak volumes.  Full-day K clearly helps boost achievement levels and promotes students’ success in school. It will also save money. The time to act is now. Our kids need it. And that’s the bottom line.

Kristen Rubino

Johnston