THE PRE-K PANACEA

Statistics don’t lie, and when it comes to the importance of educating children before they ever reach kindergarten, the truth is disheartening. All data shows that if students are behind by the time they reach kindergarten, it will be more difficult, more expensive and less effective to remediate them later on.

So if pre-K is a crucial answer to myriad education problems, why is Dallas ISD struggling to implement it?

85-90 of “school choice” voucher legislation driven by people dissatisfied with public school options. Choice schools add more options to the mix, and the response — such as the many admission inquiries Marsh received when it announced its new learning approach — seem to confirm that options are what we want.

Never mind that Miles has skipped town. Principals have latched on, and

Choice schools are different from magnet schools in a slight but significant way: They don’t have academic entrance requirements.

6,900

Percentage of brain development that happens by the time a child is 5

5 Percentage of the State’s education funding devoted to those first five years

4 of 10

Dallas ISD kindergarteners who begin the year “kindergarten ready”

3 Months of catch-up required for every month children are behind by age 5 parents too, are jumping on the choice school bandwagon. Interim Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, who held the job for six years before Miles assumed it, has vowed to continue the effort.

As if he had a choice.

27,000

Number of Dallas ISD 3- and 4-yearolds who qualify for state-funded half-day pre-kindergarten (the district offers full-day pre-K by tapping into other funding sources)

Number of eligible children enrolled in pre-K for the 2014-15 school year, up from 3,300 in 2013-14

9,500

Number of eligible children already registered for Dallas ISD pre-K for the 2015-16 school year

96 Percentage of Texas parents who send their children to kindergarten, funded but not required by the state

350

Percentage increase in the likelihood that students will be “kindergarten ready” if they attend a Dallas ISD pre-K program

Source: Dallas ISD executive director ofearlychildhood Alan Cohen and national data