5 Early Ed. Stories the NYT Could Run Instead of Yet Another Tale of How Hard it is to Get into Elite Manhattan Preschools

Like clockwork, you can count on the New York Times to reliably run articles about the cutthroat competition among wealthy Manhattan parents for space in the city’s limited supply of elite preschools and elementary schools. And today, a headline in today’s NYT proclaims “Where the Race Now Begins at Kindergarten.” As more and more wealthy New York parents choose to remain in the city after having children, growing the city’s population of preschool and school-aged children, the story tells us that competition for slots in elite schools has become increasingly fierce–so much so that some wealthy parents are settling for slots at–gasp!–less well-known or newer private schools. The slowing economy and Wall Street’s woes apparently haven’t hit demand for preschools with tuition that rivals Harvard’s, in large part because these programs are seen as the first step in a path that leads to Harvard.

To be sure, it’s interesting to read about the early education struggles of the wealthy. But it’s too bad the nation’s newspaper of record devotes so much space to this extreme end of the early education market, and writes relatively little about the wide range of early education issues that affect a lot more parents and children. Maybe they just don’t have any better ideas.

So here, Early Ed Watch offers 5 alternative story ideas for NYT editors on early education:

1. What kind of sacrifices are middle-income families making to continue paying for childcare amid rising gas and food prices? According to the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, the average cost of childcare for a preschooler in New York State consumes 12 percent of the average two-parent family’s income, and 40 percent of a single parent’s income. How are parents coping with these costs amid rising budget pressures and stagnant incomes? Are they moving to lower-cost, lower-quality care arrangments? Scrimping on other needs? Running up credit card debt? Are some parents choosing to leave the workforce and stay home as childcare + transportation costs exceed their take home earnings?

2. Similarly, what are the thousands of low-income parents on waiting lists for childcare subsidies doing for child care for their children?

3. Why let competition for spots at elite private schools get all the attention? Poor families want educational options, too, and New York City’s best charter schools are seriously oversubscribed. Parents of more than 3,600 children showed up to the lottery for seats in Harlem Success Academy Charter School this spring. And, unlike Mandell preschool and other elite schools profiled in today’s NYT article, these schools can’t pick and choose their students, but must use a lottery. Why not cover that? (Your colleagues at the Wall Street Journal and New York Magazine have) While we’re at it, why not ask why state laws prevent these excellent schools from helping expand New York City’s supply of excellent pre-k programs by offering pre-k themselves?

4. Over the last three years, New York State has increased funding for state pre-k programs by more than $200 million annually. But, as Elizabeth Green reported last year in the New York Sun, the supply of publicly funded pre-k slots in New York hadn’t grown as much as state funding increases should have allowed it too, due to implementation challenges with the program and other limitations. How is New York state, and how are school districts in New York State, progressing with implementing pre-k expansion? What are the challenges, and what is being done to address them? There are some interesting debates here, such as whether the state should subsidize full-day or only part-day programs, and the role of community-based providers.

5. The United Federation of Teachers, which last year won the right to bargain collectively on behalf of home-based childcare providers who receive state subsidy payments to care for low-income children, is also doing great work providing professional development and other resources to help improve the quality of care provided in these settings. A look at these women, the important work they do, and the support they’re now receiving would provide a valuable glimpse at the other end of the early childhood spectrum.

UPDATE: Hechinger’s Liz Willen, asking “So What Does a $30,000 Kindergarten Buy?” also has some good ideas. Maybe the NYT should send more of its reporters to the excellent seminars she and Richard Colvin put on.