Guest Column: Bring Full Day Kindergarten To Shelton

Full day kindergarten should be implemented for the children of Shelton.

Currently, Connecticut has 103 school districts that offer full day kindergarten including Derby, Seymour, Trumbull, and now Monroe, which will begin a full day kindergarten this coming school year.

Our children are being left behind during this critical time for education. Fifteen minutes a day allotted for reading, math etc. is not adequate to keep our children up to the speed of the surrounding towns.

We are failing our children by not having full day kindergarten.

Click here to help implement a full day kindergarten for the children of Shelton by signing this petition.

The cost of having full day kindergarten can offset the cost of remediation that is needed to help students catch up.

Click here for a report summarizing the research performed on full day kindergarten.

It has been brought to my attention that upgrading to a full day kindergarten in Shelton would cost approximately $800,000 in additional funds per year.

Additional classroom space should be available in all elementary schools since they were, up until recently, been available to students up to the sixth grade.

And having full day kindergarten will eliminate the need for afternoon buses to bring students to and from schools, providing an additional savings.

I also feel frustrated that $1.4 million dollars was spent on a new animal shelter. Although I do love animals, these funds could have gone toward two years of full day kindergarten.

However, our children are left being left behind due to budget restraints. Funds need to be placed in the proper areas to allow our children to compete with the surrounding towns. 

For residents without children: funding children’s education provides them with a stepping stone. By not implementing a full day kindergarten like the surrounding towns, you are holding them back.

How does this help you? They will be your doctor, your police officer, perhaps your next mayor. They deserve the foundation in education to help them succeed to make this a better town for you.

The writer is a Shelton parent with a 6‑and-a-half-year-old in first grade and a 4‑year-old who will be entering kindergarten this fall.

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