# Log 4 Schooling for Three and Four Year-Olds
Group Members: -Ruth Taylor -Angela Norman -Durriyyah Hasan
--Should public schools provide early childhood education to all three and four-year-olds in their district?
As I review my pros and cons of adding an extra grade, I find that my internal debate is almost completely one-sided. I'll first start off with the few reasons that I could come up with that would make an early start to school beneficial. Although most children already interact with others their age, starting school earlier would guarantee the fact that their social skills would somehow improve. Making it a law for parents to send their children to school at three and four would be favorable to help out in lower class society. Schools are obligated to do things like regulate nutrition in meals served there, and earlier intervention would happen, well earlier. Additionally parents are more reassured that their child would be getting a more appropriate education vs. daycare because the standards and curriculums schools have to meet.
One benefit of not having a "pre-pre-k" is that parents have the option to spend a lot of time with their young children in key learning stages of their lives. If they have to attend jobs or schools, daycare is always an option. With daycare though, you can select your own provider, and whether or not they incorporate religion, as well as the curriculum the toddler may or may not have to do. Daycare providers also offer more versatile schedule hours. School gets out around three or four pm, most parents don't get off work five. until This would place another burden on the parent to arrange a way for someone to pick the child up from school, and either take them to daycare anyway, or watch them until the guardian gets off work. Also with daycare as an alternative to mandatory schooling, when you pay the fee to have your child there, which you would also pay regardless through taxes if they had to go to school, the daycare provider gets to choose were the funds go, whereas the states dictates that in the school district. A problem with school systems now too, is over-crowdedness. And adding a whole other grade will just contribute to the problem of having already having a high student/teacher ratio. Also putting three
and four year-olds in an elementary school where there are children up to around the age eleven. This gives them an earlier exposure to older age groups.
People always complain about taxes as it is, and I can't see people who do not have school-aged children being too enthused to raise them higher than they already are. I think that the government has enough trouble as it is providing funds for the grades we already have. Some school districts barely even meet minimal requirements to run the school. Adding another grade level would just distribute those problems greater and throughout all schools. There is also a shortage of teachers for schools now too. How could we provide instructors for counties around the country when we barely or can not now? In general, I just believe that adding another grade would cause more problems and controversy with schools than there already is.