Subject: full day preschool: for Larry's website: I thought the compulsory attendance age in NJ remains age 6-16. A recent proposal to extend compulsory attendance age in NJ through age 18 had failed. Larry, you claim that there is a NJ mandate that all parents in NJ, whose children turn 3 or 4 years old, must forcibly enroll their children against their will into government-run public schools. I think you may have gone off the deep end here, claiming all parents must forcibly institutionalize (as I have heard some parents put it) their children within the public school system at age 3 or 4. Parents in the USA are allowed to make choices to direct the education of their children. Many parents in NJ choose to not enroll their children in school until the compulsory age of 6, first grade. Many parents choose private schools, religious/church schools, or even opt for home schooling. Mullica Twp. school is designated as a district factor B. This is based upon the high number of residents without high school diplomas, the high number of families living in poverty, and the high number of low-income residents. A school district designated as factor B in NJ is currently required to offer half day preschool to its community of disadvantaged children. Enrollment and attendance is voluntary, not mandated. Full-day preschool so far has only been required to be offered within Abbott school districts in NJ (the poorest). The factor B districts, which include Mullica, will soon have to begin offering full-day preschool. It was publicly stated at the last school board meeting by Ms. Sambucci (curriculum supervisor) that the district's preschool is for socialization, and not much for academics. Ms. Sambucci, earning an annual salary at $90,00, does not appear to be cognizant of the fact that for many years there exists the extensive Core Curriculum Content Standards (CCCS) by the NJ Dep't of Ed. The NJDOE's CCCS mandate education in numerous academic and skill areas in public schools, including preschool aged children. Preschool students attending NJ public schools are mandated per the CCCS to receive education in specific components of the following academic areas: health, safety, emotional, science, character development, pre-reading, manipulating sounds, rhyming words, emergent reading, comparing numbers, adding and subtracting objects, estimation, 2-D and 3-D forms, distance and measurement, plus much more. Preschool students attending NJ public schools are mandated per the CCCS to be in an academic and early childhood education program which develops the following specified skills: language, math terminology, comparisons, sequencing activities, temporal relations and ordering, similarities/differences, positional words, directional vocabulary and concepts, movement/motor, spatial, sort/categorizize, identify patterns, create patterns, 3-dimensional construction, problem solving for mathematical processes, retell and sequence a story, story comprehension, story structure, drawing, descriptive language, increase language vocabulary, understand multi-step directions, conversing, and many other underlying cognitive skills. Ms. Sambucci's (curriculum supervisor) public statement at the school board meeting demonstrates that she is merely supervising a day care center in Mullica Township School District, and not designing a curriculum for a public preschool and early childhood education program. The NJ Core Curriculum Content Standards are the framework for her job. Larry, how can you think that the low socioeconomic status of a factor B community, which the state labels as a deprived community, makes Mullica an "attractive community"? Larry, you need to get your head out of the sand. You are more adept in politics than educational issues. Do you really think more time in Mullica's daycare is going to make these children academically succeed? The test scores of Mullica students are only average on a statewide basis. Thank you for posting my educational rant. Signed, A Concerned Taxpayer, Not a Product of the Public School System, Not a Cro-Magnon Mullica Inbred, Too Intelligent to be a School Teacher

RESPONSE: Thanks for forcing me to be clearer...the title of the posting was MULLICA SCHOOL DISTRICT TO OFFER FULL DAY PRE-K ... and then I mistakenly represented that the mandate was to 'attend' and not to provide and offer ... with NO mandate to attend. The mandate is to offer pre-K and parents may choose to avail themselves for their children's education, or not, of pre-K full day. As you correctly note; the compulsory school attendance Law in New Jersey runs from 6 to 16.

A & B districts will, over the next five years, be required to begin offering full-day preschool to all 3 & 4 year olds . (Factor C & D districts will need to offer the same to families eligible for free or reduced meals.) "B" Districts like Mullica who already offer half day pre-K have a year. If the State funds full day pre-K it seems likely Mullica will be offering it next September. For similar "B" Districts that as yet do not offer any pre-K they will get an extra year to prepare for full day pre-K. The shrinkage of funding for poorer 'A' Districts seems to revolve around the desire to see to it that children who are disadvantaged and live in a more affluent school District get the extra help they should be entitled to receive. Again, you are correct; "Enrollment and attendance is voluntary, not mandated" for this pre-K offering.

Thanks again for the correction...as I shake the sand-out let me note my strong support for full day pre-K being offered and my belief that it is an asset to the educational experience of our kids. Even if, as you claim the full day pre-K would only operate as a scocializing day-care operation and not an academic one...and I hope with your spotlighting the criteria of the State core curriculum that would NOT be the case...the providing of a safe adult run school educational environment for families with young pre-K children as opposed to the difficult logistic issues for working adults when only a half day of pre-K is offered would be a positive in many ways ... including educational and thus desirability for our community. The statistical record seems to strongly indicate that when children who are economically disadvantaged take advantage of pre-K schooling they do better in myriad area of their continued schooling and life experience.

According to the Mullica School Administration as I understand it...the goals of this initiative include prevention of school failure and learning disabilities and pragmatically, saving taxpayer money in the long run. Mrs. Sambucci they claim is well aware of the Core Curriculum Content Standards and that our half-day program has many academic components. Mullica has offered Pr-K to residents for over 25 years and it is one of the reasons our students have done so well on state assessments.