RE: Question 1: Pre-school support

"Birth to Age 3 Interventions--In child-based interventions, infants and toddlers are placed in stimulating, developmentally appropriate settings for some portion of the day."

Is this an oxymoron? Do we want the State of California as parent of babies? Do we want the probability of additional emergency credentialed teachers replacing the one to one MOM & BABY, in a sterile pre-k environment either part time or full time? 

I would like to digress from the discussions on the efficacy of early childhood education, to the issue as to whether the State of California should "mandate" pre-k education, which appears to be where the Master Plan is headed.

As a PARENT first, educator second, the thought of "education" being mandated in any form from birth through pre-k and/or kindergarten is unacceptable! No matter what the perceived need nor the expected outcomes, there is no justification for educators to enter the social environment of parents and their "babies", and attempt a restructure for some perceived educational benefit. Education at best is part time. Parenting is full time. Let's not usurp the parent, but rather provide support to the parent.

A parent should have the right to choose to use your pre-k services, or perhaps the pre-k services of a church/synagogue, or even home school their babies. In our free society, I don't want the state teaching social values that I would disagree with, then find my child in need of reeducation or perhaps an IEP, because my baby did not conform to the state run curriculum. I realize this is extreme, but today in secondary schools, Planned Parenthood with the state's blessings, and federal funding, teaches in our classrooms values with which I disagree. Taking a child out of school in the middle of the day without parent permission to have an abortion without suggesting alternative directions to deal with unwanted pregnancy is a prime example of social correctness gone awry! Indeed the state has usurped the parents.

Tony Salso
Parent/Grandparent - 40 years
AP, Adult Counseling - 8 years
Vocational Instructor - 23 years