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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
2. Nobody wants to take away your PS / PK program. We just want to level the playing field for those kids entering the system later on, which I think WILL happen. 
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There is a level playing field -- live within a neighborhood school boundary of your choosing and you will gain a K seat by right when you reach that point.  Lots of families move over the summer to land inbounds for JKLM or other prefered elementary school options.[/quote]

Exactly.  And beyond that, you just have to live with how it is, since it's not going to change to support the parents who have options re: when their kids enter school.  Free Pre-S and Pre-K was set up to help kids who were entering behind to enter K ready and thriving in their learning.  NOT as a part time option for parents who could do private, could stay home, could do whatever.  It's great that you have choices, but "levelling the playing field" is the most absurd concept ever in this conversation.  The playing field has always been tilted in the favor of those with more money, more options, more school choices.  Good for those who have it, but do not start talking "levelling the playing field" when that levelling (taking away from full schoolday slots to provide part time slots for those who don't NEED full day slots) is not levelling anything.  It's further IMbalancing the playing field which - even with charters - is still pretty damn imbalanced.[/quote]

Hi there. You are right about what the PS / PK system was set up to do. You're absolutely incorrect, however, about what the expansion accomplished and was designed to do. Head start is / was a program designed to give a leg up (literally: a head start) for disadvantaged kids, to level the playing field. However, middle class families, who were paying for daycare, observed that it was unfair to give a big portion of the city free childcare, and to give this childcare an educational component, thereby disadvantaging THEIR kids. So those families cried foul, and the city listened, and expanded PS and PK as a way to support working, mostly middle-class families. I'm not saying this was a bad thing. I think it's more complicated than that. I think there are a lot of working families who need the system to work exactly the way it works. But, it is a one-size-for-all solution, even if it does not fit, it's the model that is out there. And it's defended by saying, well, gee, PS and PK are not mandatory. However, when the availability of slots to enter a charter school at K or later is all but nonexistent, we are arguing that PS  / PK becomes effectively mandatory for families, in the sense that if you don't get your foot in the door, you will be stuck at your in-bounds school when K (is mandatory) comes around. Oh, and good luck getting some improvement at your local school because, even if wealthier families are moving in, they're not bringing their wealth and involvement to the school unless the charters do not fit their needs. So the family like ours, who actually does NOT want to take advantage of the "free" services, has to anyway. Not only is this dysfunctional, it's wasteful. The govt. is literally forcing us to spend money we don't need it to spend - where that money really could be used for other, needier families. Wouldn't you like a system where I could keep my kids from competing with yours for the musical chairs of preschool lotteries if I didn't need to attend? 
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