Utah mulls move to all-day kindergarten

SALT LAKE CITY — The state is considering if and how to fund optional extended-day kindergarten throughout Utah.

On Tuesday, the Legislature's Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee heard from Brenda Hales, associate superintendent from the State Office of Education, about a pilot program in its fourth year that is currently serving more than 8,000 students. Teaching students for a full day instead of half has been proven to dramatically improve a child's literacy, particularly for at-risk children, Hales said.

When children show up on their first day of class, some have never been read to, while others can read full paragraphs and spell their names. Consequently, many fall behind and never truly recover.

"When you have students come in, you have no control over what's happened before they get to you," she said. "The range is unbelievable."

She referenced her own teaching experience, recounting to lawmakers how some children didn't even know how to turn the page in a book because it was so unfamiliar. "Slowly but surely, these kids that have had (optional extended day kindergarten) experiences are closing the gap," she said.?

Thirty-five percent of the enrolled children were considered at risk for reading fluency problems at the beginning of the year. By the end of the year, that number had shrunk to 13 percent.

Committee chairman Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, said the committee will need to consider whether to fund a statewide program for at-risk children only, to fund it universally, or not to fund it at all.

Representatives from higher education as well as the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce have recommended that the governor and Legislature implement universal extended-day kindergarten and pre-kindergarten programs statewide. Stephenson said the committee will need to consider if those types of programs should be funding priorities and what the future programs should looks like.

"As we all know, the cost of (optional extended day kindergarten) is pretty intense. And so the logical question is, should it be universally available, or should it be available to at-risk kids?" Stephenson said.

e-mail: mfarmer@desnews.com