Early Childhood Education

Without a lot of fanfare last week, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. took a small step toward providing low-income families better access to child care when he transferred authority for a child care subsidy program from the Department of Human Resources to the Maryland State Department of Education. As a matter of policy and practice, it's a good move. Last year, the General Assembly passed a bill, signed by Mr. Ehrlich, that took a number of child care functions out of DHR and gave them to MSDE, including licensing and monitoring child care facilities, providing incentives to improve quality of care, and maintaining and improving credentials of staff workers.

Sister Barbara Tucker, who taught kindergarten in an Arbutus parochial school, died of a stroke Jan. 30 at Holy Redeemer Hospital in Huntingdon Valley, Pa. She was 66. Born in Philadelphia, she entered her Roman Catholic religious order, Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart, in 1958 in Elkins Park, Pa. She earned a bachelor's degree in education from D'Youville College in Buffalo, N.Y., and a master's degree in early childhood education from the University of...

After graduating from college, Emily Poole wants to teach elementary school children, preferably kindergartners or first-graders. But in order to become a teacher, the second-year Carroll Community College student has to transfer to a four-year college to finish her degree and get a teaching certificate. Poole, 22, of Sykesville, said a new degree program being offered at Carroll Community College will make it easier for her and other students who want to become teachers to transfer to another college.

Degree a first in APG/HCC pact Holly Curtsinger, a former child/youth services employee who came to Aberdeen Proving Ground from Germany in 2004, is the first to graduate from Harford Community College with an associate in applied sci ence degree in early childhood education by using credits through the new APG/HCC Ar ticulation Agreement. Under this agreement, APG child care providers will be eli gible to receive a total of 21 ar ticulated college credits applic able to the degree from HCC on completion of APG's early childhood education child care industry program.

WASHINGTON - More than half the 65 federal programs that President Bush wants to kill next year are related to education, a move that could further inflame Democratic detractors who for the past year have been questioning his commitment to education. Bush proposed eliminating the programs yesterday as he sent Congress his budget plan for fiscal 2005, which begins in October. The White House said that killing the 65 programs would save a projected $4.9 billion, a small amount compared to this year's record $521 billion deficit.

Nell F. Passano, a former educator and homemaker, died Aug. 29 from complications of a broken hip at a nursing home in Alexandria, Va. She was 88. Born Nell Foster in Baltimore, she was raised on Groveland Avenue and graduated from Forest Park High School in 1932. She earned her bachelor's degree in 1936 from Goucher College, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She later earned a master's degree in early childhood education from Columbia University. She taught first grade in West Shore, Pa., public schools before joining the Northern York County School District in Pennsylvania as a reading specialist.

KINDERGARTEN ISN'T the beginning of learning. To be certain Maryland children excel, all must be provided with a good educational foundation before entering kindergarten. The implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act and its focus on positive outcomes for all children provides the opportunity to make some critical improvements to Head Start, a federal program valuable to early success for many disadvantaged youngsters. Congress is looking at the Head Start law, and it is imperative that lawmakers build on the strengths of the existing program while enhancing its efforts to improve its language, literacy and numeracy components.

Anne Arundel County schools Superintendent Eric J. Smith said yesterday that he will recommend closing the dilapidated, but beloved, Ferndale Elementary School and erecting in its place the county's first institution devoted entirely to prekindergarten and kindergarten. If approved by the board, Smith's plan would bring to an end years of controversy surrounding the small, gray, 77-year-old building on Wellham Avenue. In July, noting unsafe and unhealthful conditions, Smith temporarily shuttered the county's smallest elementary school and sent its 140 students to nearby George Cromwell Elementary.

Anne Arundel County schools Superintendent Eric J. Smith said yesterday that he will recommend closing the dilapidated, but beloved, Ferndale Elementary School and building in its place the county's first institution devoted entirely to pre-kindergarten and kindergarten. If approved by the board, Smith's plan would bring to an end years of controversy surrounding the small, gray, 77-year-old building on Wellham Avenue. In July, noting unsafe and unhealthful conditions, Smith temporarily shuttered the county's smallest elementary school and sent its 140 pupils to nearby George Cromwell Elementary.