Before 7 AM on weekdays, working parents start dropping off their children at the preschool building of Lake Shore Schools at 5611 N. Clark. Of the 400 kids enrolled in the private institution, 180 are preschoolers, and many of them are taught by people like Marilyn Del Valle, the lead teacher for a class of 14 three-year-olds.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Several states already have programs, and more are considering them. In the early 90s Zell Miller, then governor of Georgia, made universal preschool a focus of his administration, and by 1995 he’d made lottery money available to allow any four-year-old in the state to get six and a half hours of daily instruction. Three years later Oklahoma school districts began offering either two and a half or six hours of instruction to all four-year-olds, and New York State is now phasing in a program that gives four-year-olds at least two and a half hours daily.
The mandated degree presents teachers like Marilyn Del Valle with a problem. The current standard for preschool instructors in centers such as Lake Shore Schools is either two years of college and some child-development courses, a year of college and a year of experience, or certification from a national licensing organization based on workshops, college courses, and tests they’ve taken.
Engquist isn’t convinced. “Just having a degree doesn’t give you common sense, an understanding of children,” she says. “I remember having a certified teacher here who was taking care of ten children. One of the kids was jumping off the table, and the teacher said, ‘How do I stop him?’ How about saying no or providing activities that interest him? There are hundreds of [noncertified] teachers out there who are well qualified and capable. Educators may dismiss us as baby-sitters, but we’re carrying the burden for thousands of kids.”
But the task force would prefer to see a less disruptive model, something like the early-childhood partnerships Chicago’s Board of Education has with some 60 preschools, including a half dozen for-profits. Under these partnerships, begun a decade ago, the board gives money to the centers to hire teachers certified in early-childhood education to work with classroom instructors like Del Valle. North Avenue Day Nursery in Wicker Park, an early partner in the program, employs two certified teachers who each float between two classes of 35 to 40 youngsters, helped by noncertified instructors and assistants; the children never have to go off-site. “This kicks everything up a level,” says Steve Koll, the nursery’s executive director. “The [certified teachers] work one-on-one with the children, and they also train the other teachers.”
That kind of money will be hard to find now, given the weak economy and the costs associated with the devastation of September 11. Those problems have already forced New York State to cut back its program; it had planned to lay out an extra $500 million for four-year-olds, but Governor George Pataki recently capped the amount at $225 million.
