The school board voted Wednesday to implement transitional kindergarten, a grade that comes before kindergarten to teach 4- and younger 5-year-olds at a developmentally appropriate pace.
via Vallejo public schools to see new transitional kindergarten next year.
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Gov. Brown’s latest proposal to eliminate Transitional Kindergarten hit a wall yesterday in the state Assembly. By a 3-to-1 vote along party lines, the budget subcommittee on education finance rejected the governor’s plan.
By Donna Beth Weilenman, Staff Reporter
Funding for Benicia Unified School District’s planned transitional kindergarten classes was saved Tuesday when an Assembly subcommittee rejected Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to trim it from the state budget.
However, other changes proposed by the governor could cut $2.6 million from the local school district’s budget, said Dana Dean, a member of the BUSD Board of Trustees.
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If not for its rarity, the pushmi-pullyu of Dr. Dolittle stories might best represent the tangled political narrative surrounding California’s Transitional Kindergarten program. Instead of being half gazelle and half unicorn, the two heads of TK are Gov. Brown on one end and the Legislature, parents, and advocacy groups on the opposite end. Try as they might, they just can’t move in the same direction.
via Funding kindergarten for all 4-years olds – by Kathryn Baron.
With kindergarten registration under way at California schools, Vacaville Unified leaders announced that they are exploring the option of offering a transitional kindergarten program for the 2012-13 academic year.
There finally appears to be some agreement in Sacramento about funding for transitional kindergarten, but whether schools implement it this fall is still a big question.
By Sylvia Gonzalez
Last year, my grandson Rickey took his first steps into a transitional kindergarten classroom. When he was in preschool, Rickey, a fall baby with a November birthday, was among the youngest in the class and I noticed him avoiding leadership roles, as well as fine motor skill activities such a coloring. As a grandmother, I believed in his intelligence and abilities, but I knew that the gift of time was just what he needed to foster those invaluable learning traits.
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It’s getting so that understanding the budgetary machinations of Transitional Kindergarten requires a master’s degree, or maybe a Little Orphan Annie Secret Decoder Pin.
In the month since Gov. Brown released his 2012-13 budget plan and recommended canceling Transitional Kindergarten (TK), supporters have found it hard to keep track of what the administration is proposing and where the savings would come from.
via Will the real Transitional Kindergarten stand up – by Kathryn Baron.
Sherry Tam doesn’t know where her son will go to school next year.
The Elk Grove boy, who is 15 days too young to start kindergarten in August, was signed up for transitional kindergarten, a new grade level slated to start in the next school year.
via Transitional kindergarten’s fate in California is still up in the air.
In response to concerns expressed by school officials, the Brown administration has amended its 2012–13 budget proposal to allow districts to enroll thousands of children in kindergarten who will still be 4 years old in November if their districts grant them a special waiver.
via Brown administration modifies budget proposal on transitional kindergarten.
A few weeks ago, Gov. Jerry Brown drew a red line through the $223 million in the state budget that was supposed to be used to establish a transitional kindergarten program called for by the Legislature two years ago when it decided to back up the school eligibility cutoff date from Dec. 2 to Sept. 1.
Now school administrators are in a quandary and some parents are in limbo. The law requiring transitional kindergarten classes is still on the books, but unless the governor changes his mind, there won’t be any money to pay for it.
It is the time of year, like a change in seasons, when parents begin to think about registering their children for kindergarten.But a new state law, the state’s ongoing fiscal crisis and its complex budgeting ways have left this annual rite in limbo. The convergence of those facts not only raises questions among affected parents but it also leaves public school officials, including those in the Vacaville area, with little choice but to adopt a wait-and-see attitude.
via New kindergarten laws leave Vacaville-area parents, school ….
EdSource Extra!
Governor Jerry Brown’s proposal to delay implementation of “transitional kindergarten” for 4-year-olds has triggered doubt and confusion in many school districts around the state.
One district — San Francisco Unified School District – has announced that it will not offer the program. Preschool advocates believe it is the only one to have done so so far.
via Brown plan to delay “transitional kindergarten” triggers uncertainty in many school districts.
The Educated Guess
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When registration begins today in San Francisco Unified School District for the 2012-13 academic year, it will become the first district in California to forgo plans for Transitional Kindergarten. The decision leaves several hundred families that thought their children would be entering the new educational program with few options. A notice posted late Wednesday on the district’s website lays the blame on Gov. Brown’s January budget proposal.
via San Francisco scraps Transitional Kindergarten – by Kathryn Baron.
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A state law signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger in 2010 required school districts to start phasing in a new transitional kindergarten grade over a three-year period. The new set of classes is intended for students too young to be in traditional kindergarten but too old to be in pre-school. Under a transitional kindergarten program, students who turn five years old by Sept 1 in any school year would qualify to enroll.
But Governor Jerry Brown’s recently proposed budget called for eliminating funding for transitional-K programs, even though many districts have already started pilot programs. San Francisco was one of those districts, but it announced today it won’t offer transitional kindergarten in the next school year due to the uncertainty surrounding funding.
via San Francisco Schools Won’t Offer Transitional Kindergarten in 2012-13.
Google Alerts – “California Department of Education”
Today we feature a guest post from Linda Jacobson, veteran education reporter and author of the policy paper, On the Cusp in California.
Just as school districts across California have started to phase in the state’s new “transitional kindergarten” for 4- and 5-year-olds, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) is proposing to eliminate funding for the classes, saying now is not the time for “program expansions.”
via Calif. Budget Proposal Would Kill ‘Transitional Kindergarten’.
EdSource Extra!
Child care advocates and leading educators are vigorously protesting the proposal in Governor Brown’s January budget to postpone, perhaps indefinitely, “transitional kindergarten” for 4-year-olds due to go into effect this fall. In a tough response on its website, Preschool California, a nonprofit advocacy organization, calls for “saving kindergarten” in California. It also carries letters from superintendents of some of Callifornia’s largest school districts such as San Diego, Long Beach, Oakland and Fresno, as well as the Los Angeles Unified School District board president, all in essence calling on Brown to reconsider his proposal. “Gov. Brown’s January budget proposal includes kicking 120,000 kids out of school over the next three years,” Preschool California declared.”This is a devastating blow for California’s young children. Cutting kindergarten is a lose-lose-lose-lose for California’s children, parents, teachers and schools.“ The 120,000 figure is the group’s estimate of the number of children excluded from kindergarten should the transitional kindergarten law be delayed …
via Opposition to Brown proposal to postpone transitional kindergarten grows.