Public vs. Private: How Preschool is Affecting Your Child

MARIETTA, Ga.- It's 8:35 AM at the Center for Early Education in Marietta. The school's teachers stand and wait as cars file into the carpool line. After the cars have stopped, each teacher approaches a vehicle and greets both parent and child. The children are unloaded and hand delivered to their individual classrooms around the school where the lead teacher is waiting to greet them. By 8:55 all the little ones are in place and ready to start their day.

Nearby at West Georgia Children's Academy, a Georgia Pre-K center, a similar process is occurring. Children are being dropped off at the front of the school and teachers are escorting them from cars to the building. At 9:00 AM the school day begins.

From the outside looking in, both of these centers for education could be viewed equally. Both are combining childcare with curriculum and both seem to have structured environments for children to learn and grow. However once inside the school two very different scenes are playing out. For starters, the Georgia Pre-K center is free to its students as it is funded by the Georgia Lottery. Parents at this school pay nothing but a $30 weekly fee for hot lunches. The nearby private preschool charges between $100 to $300 per week according to the child’s age and hours of attendance.

The benefits of paying the cost of a private preschool in Georgia are present however. “Class size,” said Tiffany Strickland, who has taught both Georgia Pre-K and private preschool. “In Georgia Pre-K, the class ratio is 11:1 resulting in a maximum of 22 students in one class with one certified teacher and one paraprofessional. In private preschool settings the ratio varies but averages around 7:1.”

There simply is not enough room in the low cost Georgia Pre-K system. Because of the lack of room within the Georgia Pre-K system, parents are turning to private preschools. The problem there lies in whether or not children are attending a “preschool” or a “daycare” and getting the necessary foundation for kindergarten.

These days there are so many options for childcare that parents really have to research where their children are going for an education. In the battle of preschool versus daycare however, there are some who say it is all the same. “I think there are some benefits [to preschool] for some kids but I also think the phrase daycare has a negative connotation to many people. Call them childcare snobs,” said Barb Smith, a local preschool administrative assistant. “Basically though, if you’re paying for it, it’s a private school, whether it has the name preschool or daycare.”

If “preschool” and “daycare” are essentially the same thing, that leaves parents with two options: the Georgia Pre-K program or a private program. With Georgia being one of two states to offer the option of an essentially free pre-k program there must be a reason why parents are spending the money to send their children elsewhere.

“Being at a private preschool provides a more consistent classroom and school environment,” Strickland said. “It also provides an academic foundation that will prepare the students for the future. In my experience, the students who had a [preschool] curriculum developed such a great foundation for number, letter, color, and shape recognition. Having that foundation also prepares them in earlier literary development, as they begin to grasp phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.”

The growing popularity of a preschool education is apparent. Most three and four-year-olds go to preschool these days, a big switch from 1960, when just 10 percent of them did, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research. The growth of preschools has been fostered by more mothers working and an acceptance of the benefits of early education. The downside? “The quality of preschools is highly variable, and overall quality is on the low side,” says Steve Barnett, director of NIEER.

The need for preschool is not just being recognized by teachers and parents. In President Obama’s State of the Union Address he proposed nationwide universal preschool similar to what Georgia and Illinois are already doing. "Let's make it a national priority to give every child access to a high-quality early education," Obama said.

Until this proposed “universal preschool” becomes a reality, it’s up to the parents to either provide a solid foundation for kindergarten, or find someone else who can. Whether a family requires childcare or not, parents should be considering preschool for other reasons. “There are negative connotations with the term “daycare” these days and people assume “preschool” is better but you have to know where you’re sending your child because every school is different and they can name their center whatever they want,” Smith said. “Some daycares do have curriculum and some are glorified babysitting, but that’s why it’s important to do your research and know what you’re paying for.