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Dayton Leaders Advise Toledoans on Establishing a Pre-School
Program
By Fletcher Word
Sojourner’s Truth Editor
Dayton, Ohio Mayor Nan
Whaley and Robyn Lightcap, executive director of Dayton’s
Preschool Promise, came to Toledo on Wednesday, November 14,
to address an audience of about 75 community leaders on the
Dayton pre-kindergarten program – a program that has
enrolled more than 1,300 four-year-olds in less than two
years.
In attendance at the
presentation were board members and leaders from the Toledo
Public Schools as well as representatives from groups such
as United Way, Toledo Community Foundation, ProMedica and
the Toledo Opera (which offers a music program for pre-schoolers).
The presentation,
organized by Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz, offered a
model that Toledoans might well incorporate into a program
of its own, at least in part, explained Kapszukiewicz, as he
introduced his counterpart from Dayton and Lightcap, the
program director.
“Nineteen percent of the
kids who come to [TPS] are ready for kindergarten,” said
Kapszukiewicz, venting his frustration at the lack of
progress Toledo has made on this very important issue. “If
we doubled that number, we would still be behind the state
average … and the state is doing poorly. To be the city we
want to be, we have to do more. I don’t want us to survive
as a community, I want us to thrive. There has been
gathering momentum that this is something worth doing.”
The Dayton program, said
Mayor Whaley, got a big boost in November 2016 when city
leaders asked the voters for help in “moving the needle on
third grade reading.” Third grade reading test results are
the most effective measure on how well students are prepared
and on how students are going to fare in the future.
Lightcap advised Toledoans
to “just do it!” rather than wait for an 80 page report.
“Start it now,” she said. She also suggested an attendance
incentive program and that the city create a non-profit
organization to manage the program rather than turning it
over to the city bureaucracy and elected officials.
Dayton, according to its
leaders, has improved children’s school readiness scores and
increased state-measured quality ratings at 26 preschool
sites.
Of course, the devil is in
the details and the details are in the dollars. Dayton
managed to pass a 0.25-percent income tax increase in 2016,
part of which is allocated for family tuition assistance.
Kapszukiewicz has not yet indicated if such a request is
part of his plans but he did mention an early 2019
announcement that will provide the details about how such a
program might be implemented and the financial arrangements
required while also mentioing the fact that community
philanthropy will be part of those arrangements.
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