|
Governor Christine Gregoire on Monday called for a new rating system
for the child care centers and the preschools, so that parents can make good decicions on where to send there youngsters.
Gregoire also proposed a new cabinet level agency to pull together a half dozen child care and early learning programs now
scattered across the state of washingtons government. Gregoire said, that she is going to give early childhood education
a big push, when she was in Seattle at Wing Luke Elementary. She said that children are born to learn. She also said,
that they are ready and able to learn way before they reach preschool or kindergarden. Kids who are intellectually, socially,
and emotionally prepared at an early age are more likely to to succeed in school and will go off to college says, Gregoire.
The parents are the ones who teach there kids how to say their first words and how to sing their a,b,c's, she believes that
the parents are the best teachers. They are coming up with a new pre-kindergarden agency. It will include child care licensing,
the early reading program, state governments aspects of the head start program, and early childhood and preschool programs,
as well as child care subsides for poor families.
More of what Gregoire thinks
They have tried it out in Massachusetts and the total of the new agency
is $1.5 million dollars to set it up. The seperately elected state school superintendent and local school boards are in charge
of the of the K-12 system, but there isn't a central agency that oversees programs for childern before they have entered kindergarden.
Everyone in Olympia, Wa supports this new agency. The state of Washington has about 400,000 children under 5 years of
age. This agency will help the kids that need more help to learn faster and get more knowledgeable and ready for school. Gregoire
said, that one of there first assignments is to get a rating system for child care centers and preshools. Parents are able
to go online and choose a new car or they, can go online and find a great college for their teenager, but when it comes to
trying to find the best child care centers there's really not a lot of information online to rely on. The council envisions
a 1 to 5 rating that would include the level of training and education of the workers, the quality of teaching materials,
support for parents, and compliance with regulations. This agency is the main issue in Washington, for children under
the age of 5 to get a better education.
|
