When Vivian Sandin went to Woodside Elementary School in Glen Burnie to enroll her son, Luis, 4, in pre-kindergarten yesterday, she was asked to fill out a two-page form intended to screen out the "haves" and favor the "have-nots."
The Extended Elementary Education Program Application, debuting in Maryland schools this month, was designed by the state Department of Education to force principals to give priority to children who are or have been homeless, speak limited English, or attended Head Start, the 25-year-old federal program of schooling, social, health and nutrition services for poor 3- and 4-year-olds, infants and toddlers.
In the past, admission to pre-kindergarten -- a program the state is spending nearly $15 million on this year -- was first-come, first-served for neighborhood children. The 235 elementary schools across the state that offered the programs were mostly in neighborhoods where many students had low test scores, got free or reduced lunches, or both.
As those once-poor communities began to attract more affluent residents, children who weren't as needy began filling up classes. This ran counter to the intent of pre-kindergarten, which was first funded in Baltimore and poorer counties in 1979 to provide "early intervention and prevention" for 4-year-olds considered at the highest risk of failing in school, said Rolf Grafwallner, who heads the state Education Department's early learning section.
"We needed to put into place a more fine-tuned process to select students," Grafwallner said, so in the 1996-1997 school year, public school administrators, teachers and parents recruited by the state came up with the application that is expected to return pre-kindergarten to its original intent.
Some parents are pushing for pre-kindergarten open to all. Children in pre-kindergarten learn about playing with others and about concepts such as bigger and smaller, educators say.
Howard County has room for 100 4-year olds, and Baltimore County parents have in the past reached their minimums before all interested children were admitted.
Sandin hopes the Anne Arundel County public school system will enroll Luis. "He's too hyper, too active," said Sandin, a 27-year-old homemaker who has not been successful teaching him the basics at home. "He doesn't even know which are numbers and which are letters," she said. "I thought he'd learn it better if he has to listen to someone else."
