3-12-2025 - Sad Day at Pre-K

Today was a wonderful day reading with the children. The Spring weather was perfect - so we sat outside and enjoyed it!  All of my regulars wanted to read today. I was the most popular grownup in class. I read in pairs so everyone who wanted to read would have a chance. I feel so blessed to be a part of these children’s lives, and to have them in mine. So, as far as reading with children goes, today was a spectacular day!

But, from an administrative and government perspective, things are not going so great. “Many tears were shed” this week at my local elementary school.

The decisions and budget cuts made at the highest level of our nation trickle all the way down… to our local schools. In particular, to our most vulnerable population within the schools – the Title 1 students and the Pre-K. The school where I volunteer lost a huge chunk of their budget. Wonderful, experienced teachers got laid off effective at the end of this school year. Come next year, great teachers will not be working (or working who-knows-where) instead of teaching. And many vulnerable students will not be served because there’s not enough money in the budget to fund it.

Did you know that some kids only eat at school? Kids come to school hungry. There’s a bin of protein bars in the front office for kids who need it, all donated by kind-hearted citizens and staff. The bins go empty pretty quick.

The school voucher system in Florida (and many other states) causes an added burden to local public school budgets. As more affluent students use the voucher system to attend private school, it cuts down on the budget for the public school, and for the less advantaged kids who go there. By doing this, we continue to expand the divide between the haves and the have-nots. This is extra upsetting for people like me who was a have-not kid growing up.

One of the biggest losses this year was the dismantling of the Department of Education. The DoE was the go-to resource for parents of children with disabilities if problems couldn’t get resolved at a local or state school level. Learn more about what the cuts to the Department of Education means to local schools here.

I’m worried about a three-year-old family member who has some speech delay issues. He is typical of a child that Title 1 would normally serve (to provide Speech Therapy). Will there be enough money in the budget for him? Is he going to get a decent education from his rural county’s school system? Let’s hope so, because if not, there is virtually no DoE to call on anymore.