OPINION: All-day kindergarten makes too much sense

Opportunity is staring Idaho’s Legislature in the face.

It can pass and fund a full-day kindergarten program — for the first time in the half-century since the state opened its half-day operation under then-Gov. Cecil D. Andrus.

Run through Idaho Education News’ Kevin Richert’s recent analysis and you won’t see a single good argument against it.

The program is so popular with parents most school districts already offer it. Lewiston, for instance, initiated all-day kindergarten in the 2018-19 school year.

The only question is how to pay for it.

For districts that charge tuition, the situation creates a divide between haves and have-nots that the Idaho Supreme Court recently found hard to swallow and allowed litigation to resume at the lower court level.

But relying on local funds is one of the drivers behind the steadily escalating supplemental property tax collections, now at a record $216.6 million statewide.

It’s popular because it fills a void.

In part because Idaho is among six states that refuses to devote resources toward early childhood education, more than half of Idaho’s youngsters arrive for the first day of kindergarten unprepared to learn. Over time, kindergarten has become what first grade used to be, so these students are expected to have some foundation with letters, numbers and sounds.

Giving them an even break at catching up requires spending 90 minutes a day on reading. That’s virtually impossible when teachers are supposed to divide a 2½-hour day among recess, keyboard training, library and math — to say nothing of myriad interruptions. But a 4½-hour day makes that much more likely.

As Richert noted, there’s political consensus behind making the commitment.

For instance, Gov. Brad Little’s 2019 “Our Kids, Idaho’s Future” task force backed all-day kindergarten.

Also supporting the concept are Idaho Business for Education, the Idaho Education Association and the Idaho School Boards Association.

And the impetus behind one bill is coming from a pair of Republican lawmakers — Sen. Carl Crabtree of Grangeville and Rep. Judy Boyle of Midvale.

The State Board of Education in August also endorsed universal all-day kindergarten.

One wrinkle is state schools Superintendent Sherri Ybarra’s scaled-back program, which would limit state support for all-day services to kindergarten students who score poorly on the Idaho Reading Indicator. But whether it’s Ybarra’s $39 million program or Crabtree’s $42 million proposal, the state can afford it.

Idaho is sitting on $1.6 billion in cash and a recent estimate suggests at least $656.9 million of that is available to devote to ongoing initiatives such as kindergarten support.

Good points all. But logic doesn’t necessarily carry the day in the ideological-bound Idaho House.

It’s that chamber that turned thumbs down on spending $6 million a year for three years in federal funds to improve early childhood education services in the state — including money for up to 20 collaboratives such as one operating in Kendrick-Juliaetta.

The House also initially resisted passing along $33.7 million in federal funds to prop up Idaho child care centers that have been hammered first by the COVID-19 pandemic and then by a shortage of available staff.

And among those skeptical of funding an all-day kindergarten is Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, who is the legislative budget committee’s go-to member on public education appropriations.

Horman doesn’t just question whether the state surpluses — fueled in part with federal COVID-19 relief dollars — will last. She also has doubts about the merits of keeping 5-year-olds in class for that much time each day.

“I think there are questions about sustainability (and) it’s a massive philosophical shift,” she said.

So don’t count on common sense prevailing — at least, not yet. — M.T.