The Jackson-Madison County School Board met with Superintendent Marlon King and a couple dozen members of his leadership crew from the top two tiers of the district’s leadership outside the actual school buildings for the school board retreat that lasted about seven hours.
I was only there for the first 2.5 hours and then I had to leave to watch one of my children perform in the West Tennessee Honors Band.
So that’s why the story focuses on the first couple sessions/discussions of the retreat.
I wish I could’ve stayed another hour because 30 minutes after I left, the three state legislators that represent Madison County - Representatives Johnny Shaw and Chris Todd and Senator Ed Jackson - had a time of discussion and Q&A with the board members.
Of course, the school choice/education savings/voucher/whatever you want to call it dominated much of the discussion from what I’m told from those who were in the room.
But Jason Compton tried to transition the conversation to universal pre-K after Todd made his pitch for the bill since the state legislator discussed trying to replace $1.7 billion in funding last year for something that could fund universal pre-K statewide.
Todd resisted that idea. He said when his own children were at the pre-K stage of life, they were at home and he and his wife read books to them and they did their job in preparing their children for Kindergarten.
Todd said he doesn’t think universal pre-K is necessary for anyone except the parents who are wanting free babysitting.
There was definite disagreement in the room to Todd’s statement, and Todd is a person who’s confident enough in his own beliefs that he’s OK with that and probably expected it.
And what Todd said is a good example he and Mrs. Todd set a couple decades ago. Parents should be reading to their children if they have the opportunity, and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (which there is a Madison County board for it) and the Jackson-Madison County Public Library have programs that allow young families to either be given free books or check out books to read to their children.
So there are options.
But Rep. Todd needs to understand not everyone has the opportunities his family does/did. Just like with the school choice bill, just because you give a family $7,075 to send their child to a local private school, that means they’ve got to come up with at least $3,000 to make up the tuition difference before paying for other fees and expenses that come with school. And a single mother working multiple jobs to keep the lights on, food on the table and shoes on the feet will struggle to find scrape together $3,000 to $5,000 to pay a year’s tuition for that child.
Also, if a mother is working multiple jobs to keep the household running, she may not have time to ensure a book is read to her child at night before bed. And I’m willing to give her a pass if after working for 12-16 hours a day that she might not have the energy to read a book even if she has the opportunity.
If the mom doesn’t know about the opportunities for books, she might not have anything to read if she is trying to do that.
So would universal pre-K be free childcare for families? Yes it would. It’s free childcare for children ages 5-18 already. But if there are teachers that care that are teaching letters, numbers, phonics, how to line up for lunch and bathroom breaks, politeness, sharing, how to properly relate to others, caring for others and showing compassion, then universal pre-K is worth a legitimate discussion at its costs and needs for each county’s schools.
Brandon Shields is the managing editor of The Jackson Post. Reach him through e-mail at brandon@jacksonpost.news. Follow him on X.com @JSEditorBrandon. Follow him on Instagram @EditorBrandon.