Superintendent's update. More At Four to be cut by 18 students; maybe less | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    Remember the Chicken Littles at the Town Hall and budget meetings?

    There are two stories here, at least.

    The first is a Superintendent's update in which Dr. Don Phipps briefs the Beaufort County Board of Education on a number of things that you may find of interest, but one in particular because, if nothing else, of the attention it has received lately. That is, the status of the Pre-K day care programs in the school system.

    You will hear Dr. Phipps, Greg Singleton, the Executive Director of Federal Programs, Student Services and Exceptional Children; along with Teresa Smith the Coordinator for Pre-K programs, tell the School Board that Beaufort County will suffer a cutback of one Pre-K child care classroom, from five to four classes, with 18 students potentially being impacted.

    But they're not sure. A superior court judge in Wake County Monday issued an order blocking some of the cuts that were made by the General Assembly, but it is our understanding that there is a lot of confusion about Judge Howard Manning's order, and perhaps even in his understanding of the General Assembly's actions.

    You can hear the update in the video below:




    Commentary

    Then the second story is rooted in a Town Hall meeting Rep. Bill Cook held in Beaufort County recently and in some of the budget hearings in the county this past spring. We were warned by an organized cadre of speakers that the proposed cuts would be catastrophic, devastating and even worse. Their words, not ours.

    Well, the Legislature did its cuts and now we learn that we may lose one teaching position for 18 kids in More At Four. As is explained in the video, some parents may have to pay part of the day care expenses for their child, depending on their income level, but the point we want to make is one we made when all the Chicken Little's were screaming the sky was falling. We said at the time that much of the whining was absurd, and the reality of the cuts as we see them actually playing out just supports what we said in the first place.

    But we'll say it again, the advocates of tax supported day care should use this reprieve as a time to put together some solid assessments of these programs, or if they don't then the Legislature should finish the job.

    The Legislature should go in one or the other of two possible directions. They should continue to cut these tax supported pre-school programs or they should make them available to every child whose parent wants them in such programs. And if they are going to make them available to everyone it should be at the same cost for every child and not have some parents paying and other's not. If they continue that approach it will only encourage more people to get on the "Earned Income tax credit" gravy train and that is a program that should be done away with in the first place.