Vote for full-day kindergarten
Re-elect O'Flaherty and Skinner to school board
Tuesday is the school budget vote, and for the first time in years, residents will have tough decisions to make that could have a lasting impact on the East Meadow School District.
At stake is the future of the district’s kindergarten program and two seats on the Board of Education, at a time when many parents have expressed their dissatisfaction with the state of the school district.
While many districts across New York have struggled to stay afloat since Gov. Andrew Cuomo implemented a tax levy cap in 2011, East Meadow has continued to pass financially sound budgets. Indeed, in recent years, budget planners have eased the burden on taxpayers by keeping levy increases below the cap.
That isn’t the case this year. Voters face two propositions, the first of which, Proposition One, maintains the current half-day kindergarten program and stays within the cap. Proposition Two — with full-day kindergarten — pierces the cap. Both require a supermajority, or 60 percent of the vote, to be approved — and voters must give both propositions a “yes” in order to pass Proposition Two, which we support.
The financial concerns expressed by residents are completely valid. They should wonder how an expanded kindergarten program might affect their taxes — as well as the district’s financial flexibility — for years to come.
But it’s long past time East Meadow’s kindergartners stepped up to the schedule in effect in almost every other district in the state. It is one of just six districts on Long Island without full-day kindergarten, and if Proposition Two is voted down next week, it could be one of only three. That could damage the reputation of the community as a whole.
It’s only natural that some parents, when deciding where they want to raise their children, will see the lack of a full-day program and think less of the district. And while East Meadow students are performing comparatively well on state tests in the Common Core era, our kindergartners deserve to have the same educational opportunities as those in neighboring with full-day programs, especially as education becomes increasingly standardized.The time is now for the East Meadow School District to align itself with nearly all other districts in New York.
