Moving to bring the 2007-2008 city schools budget into compliance with state law, interim schools chief Charlene Cooper Boston yesterday said she planned to reshuffle budget money to provide prekindergarten for more low-income city 4-year-olds.
The state's so-called Thornton legislation requires that school systems offer prekindergarten to all low-income 4-year-olds by the 2007-2008 school year, and it is providing millions of dollars for them to do so.
In the budget proposal before the school board, Boston included $820,000 to add prekindergarten classes at eight schools. But in a master plan submitted to the state last year outlining how its Thornton dollars would be spent, the system said it intended to add prekindergarten at 16 schools during the 2007-2008 school year.
Facing criticism for that decision, Boston said yesterday that she will fulfill the commitment to add all 16 programs, but she is trying to determine where in the budget she can make cuts to get another $820,000.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, a plaintiff in a long-running lawsuit accusing the state of unlawfully underfunding the city schools, estimates that up to 1,550 of 6,500 children eligible for prekindergarten each year are not enrolled. Adding classes at eight schools would serve only about 160 of them, advocates said.
"This is not even close," said Bebe Verdery, director of the ACLU's Education Reform Project, at a budget forum Tuesday night. She told system officials that they must adjust the budget to offer sufficient prekindergarten classes.
"It is not optional," she said. "If a fifth-grader comes to you and says, `I would like to join the fifth grade,' you have to take them. It's the same thing with pre-K."
Children are not legally required to attend school until they are 5 years old, but research overwhelmingly shows that academic preparation should start earlier.
Five years ago, the ACLU's lawsuit led to the passage of the Bridge to Excellence in Public Schools Act, commonly known as Thornton. When fully phased in next school year, Thornton will increase education spending statewide by $1.3 billion, including more than $250 million for the city -- $85 million of it coming next school year. In exchange, systems must implement a series of reforms, including universal full-day kindergarten and half-day prekindergarten for all low-income, homeless and foster children.
