Editorial: Kindergarten proposal has worthy goal

Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2005 | 9:18 a.m.

In 2001 Gov. Kenny Guinn challenged the superintendents of the state's 17 school districts to identify the state's most important educational needs. At the 2003 Legislature the superintendents demonstrated they had taken the governor up on his challenge. They introduced a program they called iNVest -- Investing in Nevada's Education, Students and Teachers. The program outlined more than a dozen areas that needed new or increased funding.

While most of the iNVest plan was scuttled by the cost-conscious Legislature in 2003, legislators did raise per-pupil funding for Nevada's K-12 schools by about 7 percent. This increase still left Nevada about 13 percent behind the national average in per-pupil funding, but it nevertheless was enough of a gain to inspire the superintendents to keep iNVest alive. One program not included in the 2003 iNVest plan was full-day kindergarten for all students in the state, which the superintendents estimated as costing about $135 million a year. They sensed that this cost was "prohibitive" during a legislative year dominated by the issue of raising taxes for other critical educational needs. Their intuition was right, as the Legislature shot down even their scaled-back proposal, which was to provide funding for full-day kindergarten at all of the state's at-risk schools.

A lot has changed since the 2003 Legislature, however. Nevada's economy has shot upward, in defiance of those who had warned that tax increases passed in 2003 would leave businesses and entrepreneurs moribund. The state treasury is so healthy that the governor has proposed giving away $300 million in the form of car-registration rebates to residents. There has never been a better time to push for full-day kindergarten.

And that's what the superintendents are doing at the 2005 Legislature. This week they told the Assembly Education Committee that full-day kindergarten for all students is No. 1 on their list of iNVest priorities. We support the superintendents, as research has shown that full-day kindergarten improves students' attitudes toward school and, consequently, their achievement in later grades.

Currently, the Clark County School District uses federal funds to provide full-day kindergarten programs for a portion of its at-risk schools. And a pilot program is under way in which full-day kindergarten is offered at schools where parents are willing to pay tuition. Studies show, however, that full-day kindergarten improves achievement for all students. If the Legislature is serious about improving the state's primary and secondary schools -- 37 percent of which are not meeting minimum federal standards -- it will take the superintendents seriously and develop a plan for quickly implementing full-day kindergarten statewide.