Preschool political games

Two years and two bills since voters demanded a statewide, high-quality prekindergarten program, the Legislature has failed to provide it but has succeeded in shutting out public schools, which are needed to help meet an expected enrollment of 155,000 4-year-olds in August. So Education Commissioner John Winn had no choice last week when he opened up pre-K to 59 of the state's 67 school districts. As he so delicately put it: "We have been unable to certainly determine a way to specifically meet the language of the law... Given that predicament, we needed to look for other ways to interpret" it.

After Gov. Bush vetoed low-quality pre-K legislation last spring, lawmakers convened in December but again missed the high-quality mark -- requiring only three hours of instruction per day, leaving schools to select their own curriculum and allowing lax teacher credentials. Propelled by counterintuition, lawmakers also threw in a vengeful measure, forbidding public schools from offering pre-K unless the schools could guarantee compliance with the class-size amendment through 2010. The class-size amendment, which voters approved in 2002 much to Gov. Bush's disgust, gradually caps the number of students in "core" classes such as reading and math. Particularly because class-size compliance is dependent on sufficient financing from the state -- which the state hasn't provided -- no district can guarantee that it will meet the standard each year for five years.

The Legislature shut out public schools in a game of politics that had nothing to do with teaching 4-year-olds and everything to do with punishing public schools. Lawmakers knew they would be limiting parental choice if they passed the December law unfairly linking class size with pre-K. They answered the concerns, Palm Beach County School District lobbyist Vern Crawford said, with "blank stares."

Senate President Tom Lee, R-Brandon, criticized Mr. Winn for making law, rather than interpreting it. "I would prefer, and still prefer, we would pass something through this Legislature giving the (Department of Education) authorization," Sen. Lee said, "but there is no consensus for that." Voters, also, would have preferred that the Legislature pass the right "something" on pre-K. After lawmakers created a problem, Mr. Winn -- to the benefit of 4-year-olds -- offered the only reasonable solution.