Thousands of children from low-income families in Wisconsin are being kept out of kindergarten every year, and the state's subsidized child-care program is a driving factor, turning kids into valuable commodities, an investigation by the Journal Sentinel has found.
The $350 million Wisconsin Shares program lets parents keep their 4-, 5- and even some 6-year-olds in day care centers all day - at taxpayer expense - rather than enroll them in accredited kindergarten programs.
In some cases, unscrupulous parents are participating in an easy scam. They sign up their children with friends or relatives who provide child care. The state then pays the providers roughly $200 a week, and providers give parents a kickback.
In other cases, child-care providers offer free gas, free rent, vacation getaways, $1,000 rebates and other incentives to encourage parents to enroll their children in day care rather than school.
This reminds me of Obama's expanding child care tax credit scheme. What are the chances that any parent will get audited? That fraud, waste, and abuse will be kept at bay? Discouraged?
Does it seem like fraud, waste, and abuse are being encouraged?
Indeed, some children show up for first grade not even knowing their full names or how to hold a pencil, said Ann Terrell, director of curriculum and instruction for pre-kindergarten through fifth grade with Milwaukee Public Schools. Clearly, they have not attended a high-quality preschool or kindergarten, and teachers can easily tell, she said.
"This is our most at-risk population," she said. "If they start out behind, very seldom do they catch up."
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Why aren't parents responsible for teaching their children the basics? What is your name? Where do you live? Holding a pencil?
New program to focus on quality
Last month, Gov. Jim Doyle announced a new program, YoungStar, that would rate all child-care centers that receive public funding according to the quality of care they offer and link payments to their performance. A look at Doyle's proposal:
• Funding: The program is expected to cost about $10 million to launch and will be paid for primarily with money saved from cuts to about 130 providers who were suspected of scamming the system. Regulators suspended subsidy payments to those providers in response to the Journal Sentinel's ongoing investigation.
• Rating system: Under the program, centers would be labeled with one to five stars depending on the education levels of the staff, curriculum for the children, business practices of the center and other criteria.
• Payment levels: Those meeting, but not exceeding, minimal licensing requirements would receive one star and would not be eligible for Wisconsin Shares money. Those receiving two to five stars would be paid incrementally more depending on their rating.
• Incentives to improve: The program also provides funds for training and improvement.
• Status: The legislature's Joint Committee on Finance is scheduled to consider the program in the coming weeks.
This sounds a lot like Obama's executive order on obesity. Spend money to rate an ever changing child care system. How many will form, re-create themselves, and evolve to escape negative ratings? How many will work to stay one step ahead of the reviewers?
Spend all this money when these kids could just go to school?
What about capping all those parent incentives? Makes kinds into little credit cards with rewards programs/points.
more here -
http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/83737157.htmlWhy not let parents vote with their feet? Hold parents responsible for ensuring their offspring know the basics before going off to school?
If these are low income children at risk, are their parents getting public money/welfare/benefits for raising children in a substandard fashion?
Why not raise the bar for parents and eliminate programs that aren't working?
Why isn't the state investing in better parents?
