Kindergarten exception wouldn’t last
April 29, 2008
Concord Monitor
Lawmakers may limit districts to four-year private contracts
A plan to allow the state’s 12 kindergarten holdout school districts to contract with private providers is moving ahead - but with a time limit.
The proposal, which still needs to go before lawmakers, would allow the districts to contract with private kindergartens for no more than four years in order to comply with a bill that makes kindergarten mandatory. In the meantime, district officials would need to determine how to offer kindergarten within the public school system. The proposed bill would require the state to help districts with the costs of adding public kindergarten.
“We’re dealing now with 12 districts that for whatever reasons have chosen up until this point not to have kindergarten; the state, as an educational policy, has said that the school districts must offer kindergarten,” said Rep. Marjorie Smith, a Durham Democrat who serves as chairwoman of the House Finance Committee, which is reviewing the bill. “This legislation is an attempt to ease the transition.”
As of last week, members of the House Finance Committee appeared to be leaning toward a proposal that would allow the 12 districts to contract with private providers indefinitely, rather than offer the service in public schools, provided that those providers met some state standards. Yesterday, Smith introduced an amendment that placed a three-year time limit on those contracts.
After a lengthy discussion, lawmakers decided to extend the time limit from three years to four years, in an effort to gain support for the proposal from more members of the committee. The House Finance Committee is scheduled to vote on the proposal today. Yesterday, a majority of the committee’s members seemed to support the plan.
For the plan to pass, the full House would have to support the changes. The proposal would then go back to the Senate. An earlier version of the proposal - which wouldn’t have allowed districts to contract with private providers - passed the Senate and recently won preliminary approval in the House.
Although some lawmakers would rather districts not be allowed to contract with private providers at all, the time limit is likely to allay their concerns.
“I think it’s stalling a little longer than it needs to,” said House Education Committee Chairwoman Emma Rous, a Durham Democrat who sponsored the version of the plan that won preliminary approval in the House. “But if it makes it easier for districts to comply, then I support that.”
Among the concerns raised by those who dislike the idea of contracting with private providers were the lower licensing and certification standards. Teachers in private kindergartens don’t need certification.
Under the proposal lawmakers reviewed yesterday, private providers would have to meet Department of Education standards in order to win a contract with one of the 12 districts.
At issue with the bill is how much leeway to give those 12 holdout districts.
Last year, lawmakers included kindergarten in the definition of an adequate education, paving the way for an end to New Hampshire’s status as the sole state not to offer kindergarten to every student. Now, lawmakers are grappling with how to bring the remaining 12 districts into compliance with the law.
Although it initially seemed as though the 12 districts would have to provide kindergarten by next school year, lawmakers eventually scrapped that idea. In the version of the bill that won preliminary approval in the House, districts would have until September 2009 to begin offering the service.
Apart from the option to contract with private providers, the bill offers the 12 districts numerous incentives.
Under the proposal committee members were considering yesterday, the state would offer construction aid to the 12 districts. District officials could choose between a state grant to cover 75 percent of the actual cost of constructing kindergarten facilities (a program that has been available to other districts in the past) or 100 percent of the cost of designing and constructing a basic, code-compliant kindergarten facility.
The state would also help those districts that decide to use temporary classrooms, giving them time to create permanent facilities. Yesterday, House Finance Committee members appeared to be leaning toward a proposal that would pay the full cost of establishing temporary classrooms for four years. In addition, the state would help pay for furniture and equipment.
Although the proposal would give district officials flexibility, they would not be allowed to contract with private providers for four years and then establish portable classrooms for four years before finally creating a permanent kindergarten facility. In other words, even if district officials choose one of the temporary measures, they need to begin thinking about how to create space for public kindergarten, lawmakers said.
“It would be my intention that it’s not cumulative, because that completely defeats the purpose,” Smith said.
Once the districts begin offering kindergarten, the state would distribute a per-pupil grant. In the coming school year, that per-pupil grant would be $1,200, under the proposal. The bill would also allow districts to contract with other public school districts to provide kindergarten.
The idea of allowing districts to contract with providers arose after lawmakers representing several of the holdout districts expressed concern with the version of the bill that passed the Senate.
Rep. Lynne Ober, a Hudson Republican and finance committee member, said that several of the districts within her region wouldn’t have time to build kindergarten facilities by September 2009. Ober also worried about the state mandate - if lawmakers didn’t allow districts to contract with private providers, the state could end up in court, with local officials arguing that the state must cover the full cost of whatever it mandates, she said.
Along with Ober, Rep. Peter Leishman recently proposed allowing districts to contract with private providers. Yesterday, Leishman, a Milford Democrat and finance committee member, said he was content with the four-year time limit.
“What Lynne and I were really looking for was flexibility,” Leishman said. “I’m very pleased with what happened.”
The districts that don’t offer public kindergarten are Hudson, Litchfield, Lyndeborough, Mason, Mascenic, Milford, Pelham, Auburn, Chester, Derry, Salem and Windham.