Noting only that there is a vicious fight going on below the waterline at the moment, below the fold I offer two press releases about recent California legislation boosting pre-school programs for at-risk kids. Without my telling you, and without the numbers on the bills being the same, would you know these people are talking about the same bill?
Please, offer your own opinions in comments.
Example 1, from Preschool California:
California Senate, Assembly Pass $50 Million Bill for Preschool
8/31/2006 4:02:00 PM
To: State Desk
Contact: Catherine Atkin, 510-821-1441, catkin@preschoolcalifornia.org, or Lisa Rothbard, 510-271-0075 x303, lrothbard@preschoolcalifornia.org, both of the Preschool California
OAKLAND, Calif., Aug. 31 /U.S. Newswire/ — Preschool California President Catherine Atkin issued the following statement as AB 172 (Chan) heads to the governor for his signature after passing out of both the Senate and Assembly with overwhelming support:
“The passage of AB 172 (Chan) yesterday out of both houses of the Legislature is a victory for California’s at-risk children, their families, and their struggling schools. This first step is one of many that will be necessary to provide quality voluntary preschool to the children who need it most. Preschool California looks forward to working with the governor and the Legislature in the months and years to come to assure the quality of instruction provided in state-funded preschool classrooms prepares California’s kids to do their best in school.”
AB 172 implements the governor’s proposal to invest $50 million dollars to provide for increased preschool enrollment in programs located in the attendance areas of elementary schools in deciles 1-3 on the Academic Performance Index. It will also fund an important new family literacy component designed to teach parents the skills needed to help their children succeed in preschool and beyond. In addition to the $50 million in preschool program expansion, $50 million dollars in one-time funds for preschool facilities was included in the final budget for fiscal year 2006-2007.
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Preschool California is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization working to achieve quality preschool opportunity for all 4-year- olds in California. http://www.preschoolcalifornia.org.
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© 2006 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
Example 2, from Considering Homeschooling:
Date: September 8, 2006
From: Christian NewswireConsidering Homeschooling: California Governor Renews Attack on the Traditional Family
Universal preschool bill hurts children and families by taking more moms out of homes and subjecting children to the negative impact of these little public schools.MEDIA ADVISORY, Sept. 8 /Christian Newswire/ — Considering Homeschooling a national Christian homeschool recruitment group, decries today’s signing of AB 172 into law by Governor Schwarzenegger.
“After the recent public outcry when the governor embraced the radical homosexual efforts to indoctrinate children by signing SB 1441, we hoped he might listen to the good families of California again as he did by vetoing SB 1437,” said Charles B. Lowers, Executive Director of Considering Homeschooling.
“In June, California voters shouted a thunderous ‘NO’ to the universal preschool advocates. But that didn’t stop the liberals in the legislature or the Governor from foisting AB 172 on us and stealing $50 million more dollars for this false cause — studies have shown any academic gains from preschool are only temporary and that preschool can make children aggressive.”
“The Hollywood elitists and ivory tower think tanks have it wrong. And sadly, most Christian families have it wrong. They want to replace moms, dads, and the family system designed by God with an institutional system of professional caretakers,” says Lowers.
“Where are parents receiving encouragement to stay home and nurture their own infants? Many churches are in the preschool business and have inadvertently undermined the biblical responsibility of fathers to raise up their children in the Lord. If a family has been persuaded to keep their children home, it is more likely because they were influenced by Dr. Laura, than by the pulpit. Christian men need to take the headship of their homes, and not allow their children to be placed in daycare.”
Considering Homeschooling urges Christian families to start homeschooling today. And, if your children are very young, start preschooling at home today.
Considering Homeschooling is a nationwide ministry — started in Orange County, California by Charles and Kathy Lowers — that focuses on introducing Christian parents of babies, toddlers and preschoolers to private, biblical homeschooling. The group urges families that can create a safe, loving, Christ- centered environment where a child can learn and thrive, to homeschool.
And a tip of the old scrub brush to Texas Freedom Network.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
Well, if I once was lost, apparently now I’m found!
Evelyn, care to comment here?
https://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2007/02/08/teachers-underworked-and-overpaid/
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Ed, I’ve lost you!
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Does anyone remember when homeschooling meant radical critics like John Holt, and hippies in Humboldt County, and such? I think, but lack documentation, that when you see a home-schooled whiz kid admitted to Harvard at 15, you’re seeing a survival of that crowd, not a Considering Homeschooling alum.
It can be instructive to compare Holt’s critique of the lock-step curiosity-suppressing approach of public and imitation-public schools with the supposedly Christian approach of these people. It’s similar, the way Saint Augustine is similar to the home-schoolers.
Nonetheless, the Just Plain Folks home-schoolers have had some success in getting kids to read and write, and success has eluded many public schools. (Again, Holt’s thoughts on schools as places where failure is necessary are worth considering.) But those successes aren’t worth much, as yet another critic made clear years ago:
http://www.sourcetext.com/grammarian/leaning-tower-of-babel/04.htm#2
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So one says this is an investment. The other says it’s stealing for something useless, because studies have shown that preschool has only temporary benefits, but perhaps permanent drawbacks.
Where are the objectivity police when you need them? They wouldn’t have to know the answer. They could just require statements to have one negative for every positive and follow rules like saying “some” studies, 3 studies, 1 study, whatever it is, plus some negatives that any impartial analysis of any study could find. I’d vote to repeal the first amendment to impose such objectivity laws, but then I have this totalitarian streak in me alongside my libertarian streak.
I’m sure people wouldn’t resort to propaganda except for some benefit that it has. Of course the same is true for preschool, homeschooling or anything else. Fitting so many aspects of society into one great cost/benefit spreadsheet is so much work, and few would trust the experts who might do that most objectively. So cultural evolution is not something that can be managed for the foreseeable future. Everyone does what he or she thinks is best, and into the future we go. It’s probably not the best way, but it’s a way that has a lot of interesting history behind it. It is authentically human, however it turns out.
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What I have noticed in my little part of the Christian community are children that are not able to read. There is a growing movement in the church to live “separate and apart” from the rest of society. Living a life based upon one verse of the bible.
2Corinthians 1:21 It is God himself who makes us, together with you, sure of our life in union with Christ; it is God himself who has set us apart,
Someone that could barely make it though highschool becomes the teacher of these children. The fact of the matter is there really is very little oversight. The overcrowded school districts can barely get the busses to run on time. They don’t take time to see if these home-schooled kids are making it or not.
Once a year, some marvel kid is drug out on stage that made it to college at age 15. Everyone cheers. But there are hundreds and hundreds of kids who’s mom’s are burned out on life, and school starts at 11:20 am and ends at 11:26 am, and takes time to watch some good wholesome tv.
I have a daughter in the fifth grade and I frequently help her with her homework. There are nights, that even with my college education I have to stop and scratch my head an think about the assignment. I got to wondering one night, how many parents could actually do their child’s 5th grade math homework. What’s your guess? Mine’s about 30 percent of America. But, they are able to become home-schooling parents.
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