ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 27, 1997 TAG: 9701270008
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
VIRGINIA'S Child Day Care Council has backpedaled on proposals to lower day-care standards - but not nearly far enough. A legislative remedy likely will prove necessary.
Incredibly, at a time when we ought to be talking about how to improve early-childhood education, the council still plans to eliminate a requirement that lead teachers have at least a high school education.
Instead, it would require any who lack a diploma to have one year of supervised classroom experience. But supervised by whom, to meet what educational standards?
Parents should wonder, since the day-care council also proposes to eliminate a requirement that center directors have a college degree or 48 semester hours of college work.
And the council still plans to raise the teacher-pupil ratio to 1-to-15, from 1-to-10, for mixed-age groups of 3- to 6-year-olds, while backing off a similar change for classes of 4-year-olds.
All of which is designed not to improve the quality of early-childhood education in Virginia, but to increase its availability. Greater availability in itself is needed, especially with welfare reform requiring more parents to go to work. But the council's suggested means are absurd.
Lowering educational standards and increasing class sizes can be seen only as an erosion of quality. They betray a numskulled notion that day-care's proper mission is baby-sitting rather than education.
Presumably, the moves would increase the number of day-care providers and bring down costs. But can Virginia afford such savings long-term?
A growing body of evidence shows that children learn at a very young age, starting in infancy, the skills they need to succeed in school and as adults. Before starting kindergarten, they should have acquired, at the very least, a certain level of motor, language and social skills. Without them, youngsters start school behind, and have a hard time ever catching up.
These are skills that a loving parent, caring for one child, teaches an infant or toddler through the natural interactions of a normal day - to hear and say different sounds, understand concepts of size and shape, learn how to care for himself and get along with others. Working parents who must leave their children in the care of others for much of the day should be assured that each child will get this educational foundation.
A plan for less-educated already underpaid workers to supervise more children hardly offers such assurance. Unless the council reverses itself, the General Assembly should pass legislation filed this session that would maintain current standards.
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