Day care is not preschool!

Day care does not equal preschool. There is a big difference, the profit model versus the services model. There are a great many quality day cares but, a day care is not a preschool for one major reason, accountability. As a Head Start teacher I am accountable to congress, as a day care provider I am accountable only to the parent.
The New York Times published an article on a study that links time spent by young children in day care to disruptive behavior in 6th grade. I can totally see the validity in my personal experience. However, I came across a blog that tried to use the report to argue against universal preschool. I couldn't believe it. I guess the part that really made me mad is that the blogger equated the two, preschool and day care. I worked in a day care for two weeks. I couldn't stand it, there was no organization, no curriculum, the ratio was 1 teacher to 12 kids which became 1 - 23. After the 24th kid, then they might pull someone in to help, if there was someone available. I challenge anyone to come to my class and tell me it is like a day care. There is too much learning going on.

Try it, you might like it!

The arguments against Optional Universal Preschool that really frustrate me are that it will cost too much money. (along side) What if it doesn't help middle class kids? We'll never know until we try it, kind of like broccoli. There is no research that shows the benefits because it hasn't been tried before.

I just read on Alexander Russo's blog about the Universal PK "juggernaut" facing challenges because no one can agree on what kind of credentials a PK teacher needs. Eventually, I think we should all have teaching certification and endorsement in preschool but, that is a long way off. We can't wait until the staff is all certified to open the preschool. We are going to have to face reality and train some folks, help others get certified, and even start offering incentives to teach preschool, because, unless you work for a preschool program that is funded through a public school, you are probably not going to make enough money to keep being a preschool teacher after you get certified.