"The Preschool Wars" by Kayla Webley (Blog 8)

                In her article “The Preschool Wars” written in the October 10^th, 2011 issue of Time Magazine, Kayla Webley talks about why it is necessary for children to attend preschool, and how North Carolina is experiencing the worst dilemma regarding getting children into preschool. In preschool, children perform simple exercises that can, believe it or not, make or break their futures. Preschool is absolutely critical in a child’s life; preschool teaches a child how to pay attention, stay on taste, and how learning can be fun. A study that was conducted in Ypsilanti, Michigan showed that people who attended preschool were able to achieve higher levels of education and earned higher wages, while the people who hadn’t attended preschool had received lower levels of educations and had a higher chance of becoming incarcerated. Recent statistics have shown that if a child is not reading at grade level then they are more likely to drop out of high school by age 19. The U.S. is suffering while trying to fund preschool programs for each state. Ten states have no preschool funding program. North Carolina is struggling and attempting the hardest to get their children into preschool. North Carolina has about 13,500 kids on a waiting list to attend preschool with a funding program. Some parents are resorting to teaching their kids how to be prepared for kindergarten, but are struggling to do so because these certain parents have no teaching experience.       

                Reading about this issue frightens me. I already know that America currently ranks one of the lowest in test scores, and now we cannot even get all of our children to go to preschool. What is America becoming? Sadly, it seems that this is going to be the non-intelligent era for America. Other countries will surely surpass our forces by outwitting us, and possibly even taking over the country. With all this tension between countries like China, North Korea, and the U.S., I am not going to be surprised if an immense war starts. I hope that we can fix our economy soon and start to boost up our school systems. This era in American should be about vast innovations and creations, instead of cognitive and economic meltdowns.