I guess in an ideal world, there would be public preschool available to all children and placement decisions throughout school would be based on the individual student's needs instead of rigid regulations.
I don't support univeral public (taxpayer-funded) preschool, because for many young children, the ideal environment is to stay home with their mothers, who spend a little time teaching them directly and a lot of time giving them various learning experiences. Society should not subsidize preschool over the stay-at-home alternative.
In GA, there's a state funded pre-K, for kids who are 4 on or before Sept 1. It's funded with the GA Lottery not tax payer dollars. And I would venture to say, that while space is limited, a vast majority of parents (working or not) are putting their 4 year olds in this program (including me). It would be WONDERFUL if this was the opportunity to assess where kids are and whether or not Kindergarten is needed. Maybe I'm the only one, but even if I was a SAHM, I'd be searching for morning out/preschool programs for my two for at least half a day, both for their benefit and mine.
And for the record, my mom was a SAHM back many moons ago, and I still went to a preschool (in NJ). I was actually assessed, and it was recommended for me to go to Kindergarten early (which NJ would've allowed back then), but my mom held me back until I was 5. But it had nothing to do with her staying home or wanting me to be home with her.
My two have been in childcare since they were both 8 weeks old. They are not any less behaved, not any less loved, and not any less traumatized because of it. And I am not any less of an involved, in tune, mother. I hated that I had to work while they were babies, but I'm truly grateful for the many programs out there that weren't just babysitting them while I was at work.
