Would you pay for public school kindergarten?

[daughtersrus]

A suburban Chicago school district is trying to pass a tax referendum. If it fails, one of the options that they're purposing is to charge parents $5,000 a year for each Kdg student. Would you pay that or would you have your child skip their Kdg year in school?

In IL, Kdg is not mandatory to attend.

 

[tlbwriter]

I would pay it, because I would have been paying for daycare anyway, and I think kindergarten is important. Of course, that assumes I thought it was worth the money...

 

[NHdisneylover]

I probably would have kept mine home from Kindergarten in that situation. It would depend on how good I felt the program was though.

 

[disneyquestions]

Thats horrible and insane. My daughter is in kinder and its only half day, and I hate that. They give tons of homework because they are only half day, and its so hectic at nights and in the mornings, that we are rushing to get everything done.
I couldn't afford 5k for kindergarten, so my vote would have to be to homeschool my kid for that year. Thats sad for so many kids.

 

[Mrs. Charming]

Homeschool! However, DD is lucky enough to have a elementary teacher for a grandma.

I do feel badly for the kids who do need Kindergarten and can't afford it. That's awful.

 

[lecach]

Assuming that Kindy is 10 months, and knowing that 10 months of daycare where we just moved from would have been $7750, then I would have gladly paid $5000 for it. I would imagine that daycare in Chicago would be even more expensive than what we paid in Chapel Hill NC.

 

[mtemm]

in my town parents are charged for full day kindy, but half day is free. we chose to do the half day and were happy with our decision.

is the $5k for half or full day?

 

[Lisa S.]

Here in Arizona, they decided not to fund full-day kindergarten this year. They funded 1/2 day. If your child goes 1/2 day it's totally free. If you want them to go full day, you need to pay; it's a different amount for different districts. I had my son in a charter school for preschool and pre-k and I loved it. I chose to pay the money for the full-day kindergarten and keep him in the same school. I think it's worth it.

 

[LuvOrlando]

No way, if I had to pay out of pocket for it anyway my kids would go private. I'd even kick in a little more for the school I want. I bet a parent could get a pretty good early childcare program for $7,000 a year or better yet, hire a private out of work teacher for one on one instruction in my own home.

Here it was 1/2 day for my kids. I don't ever consider any of it free since we pay taxes.

 

[daughtersrus]

I believe that it's for half day. I don't know of any districts in the area that offer full day. So, daycare may still be needed.

 

[nuttylawprofessor]

We paid a few grand last year for a full-day kindergarten program at the neighborhood Chicago public school. Several Chicago schools have this "donation" program to be able to fund programs above what we can get from the school district and state.

At least this year's "donation" was less than $1,000.

 

[Disneyluvr]

Here in Arizona, they decided not to fund full-day kindergarten this year. They funded 1/2 day. If your child goes 1/2 day it's totally free. If you want them to go full day, you need to pay; it's a different amount for different districts. I had my son in a charter school for preschool and pre-k and I loved it. I chose to pay the money for the full-day kindergarten and keep him in the same school. I think it's worth it.

Not totally true. I am also in AZ and our kinder program is full day at no cost to the parents, everything is provided. I also teach kinder in a neighboring town and we have full day kinder at no cost. So it really is just up to each district. I'm up north

 

[MiniGirl]

Nope. I would not have paid. The presschool we sent our girls to was about $350/month. I would've kept them there for another year.

 

[tvguy]

My view is I am ALREADY paying for it in my taxes.

I really can't answer that honestly since DW and I found the FREE public schools so bad that we put our kids in private school from K-12.
A full quarter of our income went to tuition. But now that our kids are in college, they tell us it was worth it, they feel years ahead of classmates who came from public schools.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Maybe. Depends on the program and what is offered.

 

[pyrxtc]

In NH, Kinder is not mandatory. Some places don't have public Kinder at all, some have half days, and some half full day. The last two are free for some towns and in some towns you ahve to pay for it.

 

[vettechick99]

So if you can't afford the $5k, your kid gets no schooling? OMG, that would be a huge mess. I would hate to be a 1st grade teacher in those districts!!!

I am working on my couseling degree so this year I registered new students as part of my internship. We had parents register their kids the first day of school (not before like they are supposed to ) and each student is assessed right then. They are supposed to be able to use scissors, follow directions, write their name, etc. Very simple skills. You would not believe the number of 5-6 year olds who can't do those things. What do they do all day? Watch tv? So imagine 6-7 year olds who don't go to Kindergarten and are expected to know letters, sounds and sight words and they know nothing. Talk about setting them up for failure.

This referendum is a bad, bad, bad idea. BAD!!

 

[Becky2005]

I would end up skipping it because at the time my kids were going to Kindergarten, I wasn't working, so no need. I'm wondering if they would have low income scholarships for it though since I know there is no such thing as "free" public school here.

There are fees. Not $5,000 worth but it's about $40.00/Kindergarten and $80 for 1-5, then goes up to a couple hundred for Middle School and I think about $300 - $500 for High School. It just all depends on the courses & things at that point.

I know a million years ago my cousin took the state to court because it's supposed to be "free" education & he lost mostly because they do offer programs for low income, payment plans for others, etc...

Of course, our Kindergarten is 1/2 day so it would be $5,000 for the 2 1/2 hours of Kindergarten and then whatever before/after school care fee if I worked, so it wouldn't be "just" $5,000. Our school didn't even offer before/after school for Kindergarten until this year & it's through the park district not the school.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I'm not sure how that is something they can get away with legally, since they are a public school.

If 5k is half day, I would see about the price for a private full day kindergarten, especially since I would have to find day care for the half the day anyway.

 

[CaliforniaDreamin]

Great. Just what our children need. Less education.