Posted 11:28 AM by Susan Darst Williams

WHY DO DEMOCRATS KEEP INSULTING MOTHERS?

There should be some mega-red cheeks on Democratic governors and union-bought politicians and educrats across the land. That’s because their recent fund-raising darling, all-day kindergarten, has been exposed as a mega-fraud. Not only is it a colossal waste of money, it’s a slap on the face of the American mother.

The news is out that doubling the amount of time 5-year-olds are in school does absolutely nothing -- ZILCH -- for their end-of-the-year reading and mathematics knowledge.

That’s according to a long-term study of 22,000 kindergarteners nationwide that was released by the National Center for Education Statistics. Download it and see for yourself, on page 11, that there is ‘’little meaningful difference in the level of children’s end-of-year reading and mathematics knowledge and skills’’ between kids who went to half-day kindergarten and those who were in full-day k:

http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2001023

An excellent expose of the stupidity of all-day kindergarten and its end-game -- universal, comprehensive, state-run day care for infants on up -- was published last month by education writer Darcy Olsen:

http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/article.php/430.htm

This should have a chilling effect on empire-building politicians and school boards now grappling with budget problems, including right here in Nebraska.

Duhhhhh: go back to half-day kindergarten, you morons. That’s what’s best for kids and would save beaucoup bucks, as well.

What makes this extra interesting, and also sad, is that certain educrats and union-owned politicians keep stepping in ‘’it,’’ bigtime, by stating that we NEED all-day kindergarten because school is sooooo much better for kids than the HOME setting and their MOMS.

The ones doing this the most are the Democratic-controlled teachers’ unions, which want more employees in public schools so they can build their membership and have more power, along with Democratic governors, including Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona, Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania and Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa.

Last month they gathered in Arizona and attempted to make fun of an Arizona state representative, Russell Pearce of Mesa. In opposing his Democratic governor’s numbskulled proposal for an additional $170 million in tax dollars for all-day kindergarten, Rep. Pearce was quoted as saying, ‘’I spell early child development ‘m - o - m,’ MOM.’’

Democratic Gov. Ed (NOT as in ‘’education’’) Rendell called Pearce ‘’one of the dumbest SOBs in the world.’’ He went on to say: ‘’Where has he been? If Mr. Pearce doesn’t get the link between full-day kindergarten and economic competitiveness, I suggest we (editor: wait a minute, ‘’we’’?) spend a few Arizona tax dollars and send him to Japan, Korea, Germany or France, where they do understand the benefits of early childhood education.’’

In response, Pearce called him a ‘’socialist’’ and ‘’IQ deficient.’’ (Read about the March 21 exchange on http://www.azcentral.com)

Pearce is right: besides the crucial NCES report of no benefit from all-day k, on every international test-score comparison, American 4th graders moosh most every other nation in the world, including most of those European state-run preschool nations, in reading and math. That reflects a superior preschool system in the U.S., which today is still largely controlled by U.S. parents, not the educrats. It is in high school -- after educrats have had their way for more years than parents -- where our public school deficiencies show up. That’s the problem that needs to be addressed, not preschool arrangements.

Indeed, close to 100 percent of American kindergarteners come to school in good health, eager to learn, familiar with numbers and shapes, have the alphabet nailed or nearly so, and are able to count to 10, the NCES study reported.

Also note that private-school kindergarteners are ‘way, ‘way ahead of public-school kindergarteners at the end of the kindergarten year, according to the NCES. Yet, strangely enough, most of them are in half-day programs.

So if public-policy makers REALLY wanted to help at-risk kids, instead of a huge new multi-million dollar all-day kindergarten system, they’d give them ‘’kindergarten grants’’ to allow them to get a REAL head start, by attending a half-day kindergarten program that is private-sector led, and therefore, better quality and more cost-efficient.

Furthermore, the NCES study makes it clear on pp. 25-26 that the single-most important factor in a child’s reading and math achievement is the level of education that child’s MOTHER has had. It counts far, far more than the number of hours spent in kindergarten.

Mother really does know best, folks.

So the Democrats are INSULTING us mothers when they keep saying more time in school is better for kids than more time with us.

Unh HUH. If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t NOBODY happy.

Recommendation No. 1: never, ever vote for another Democrat. They hate moms. Probably hate apple pie and the flag, too.

No. 2: if public schools really, REALLY wanted to help ALL kids, they’d go back to half-day kindergarten, and give the kids more time with the most important early-childhood education influence there is. And you know how to spell that: m - o - m.