Keep half-day kindergarten as an option

We got our issue on the agenda for the next board meeting. The crowd that showed up was so large that the meeting had to be moved to a larger room. We proposed the idea of an option for parents to have a half-day program and presented our petitions. The board responded with, "We can't afford to run the buses at noon." We countered, "If parents are willing to provide the noon transportation, would the district accept this plan?"

The end result was that the board and administration wanted to see, by way of the spring registration, just how many parents preferred the half-day option. At registration time, 85 percent of parents had signed their children up for half-day kindergarten.

The solution was that the children who lived within the two-mile radius, non-bus riders, would attend the morning sessions, and the buses would run at noon to pick up the children who lived beyond the two-mile radius.

Some would argue that parents need an all-day kindergarten program to help their children progress properly. Opponents argue that these all-day programs are government-subsidized day care. Regardless of which side of this issue you are on, it must be recognized by state authorities that all parents do not want to send their young children away from home for up to 10 hours a day.

As this issue comes up locally, parents in each school district should have the opportunity to resolve the question for themselves. We don't want the Legislature to make our parental choices. We still have the right and responsibility to choose what is best for our children in our own school districts.

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Dixie L. Drawhorn Baker is a children's advocate, mother of seven and a former PTA president.