School officials urge funding for all-day kindergarten

Nevada school officials told members of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee Monday all-day kindergarten produces dramatic improvements in student achievement throughout the grades.

AB198 would provide school districts with $12 million this coming year to add portable classrooms needed to move from half-day to full-day kindergarten. It would then put $60 million into the Distributive School Account the following year to provide teachers and cover other costs. Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, said that would be the base amount built into the state education budget every year after that to pay for all-day kindergarten.

He told the committee the 10 states with the highest scoring public schools in the nation all have full-day kindergarten.

"Study after study has shown students enrolled in early education programs are better equipped for the long term," he said.

Committee Vice Chairwoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, said the bill may not go far enough because it would fund classes that have as many as 35 students in them. She said she would like to reduce class sizes in kindergarten to the 16-student maximum the state now sets for first and second grades.

Clark School District Superintendent Carlos Garcia said all-day kindergarten is a proven way of improving student achievement. His district is so convinced of it's importance administrators have moved existing federal and other money into doing it in 54 at-risk schools in Southern Nevada.

"We felt there was nothing more important than giving our children this great opportunity," he said.

Garcia said the program is funded at 25 students per class but, "We'd love to have it smaller."

He and Rita Hemmert, kindergarten coordinator in Washoe School District, said improvement in student achievement is "amazing." She presented figures showing all-day kindergarten can result in up to 75 percent of students exceeding test standards compared to a third of students in normal half-day kindergarten classes.

Assemblyman Bob Seale, R-Las Vegas, asked what the kindergarten curriculum was like.

"There is no nap time," said Garcia. "Our programs are all academic programs. We're teaching math, we're teaching colors, we're teaching reading."

Assemblyman John Marvel, R-Battle Mountain, asked whether funding for kindergarten would be "fenced off" - earmarked and outside normal education funding.

Giunchigliani, a former school teacher, said the answer was no: "I don't think it should be off limits to collective bargaining."

n Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.