Kernan backs full-day kindergarten

INDIANAPOLIS -- Democratic Gov. Joe Kernan announced a proposal Thursday that would extend full-day kindergarten across Indiana and make it available statewide by 2007.\nKernan outlined a plan to pay for the initiative with a complex mix of money from gambling taxes and other money that has been dedicated to public schools and eventually, from the state's main checking account.\nWhen fully implemented, the proposal would cost about $150 million a year, Kernan said.\nThe proposal, which also would create a pilot program for state-funded preschool classes, was needed because early learning was vital and it would have the most significant long-term impact on the lives of young Hoosiers, he said.\n"Not only is this an investment in our children, it's an investment in our future workforce and economic-development efforts," explained Kernan.\nKernan's program is even more expensive than a similar proposal made by the late Gov. Frank O'Bannon in 1999 that failed to win legislative approval at a time when the state was flush with cash. The state now faces a budget deficit of about $1 billion.\nKernan, who made his announcement at an elementary school surrounded by about 30 giggling kindergartners, said his proposal would allow 20,000 more students a year to attend full-day kindergarten. Currently, only about 6,000 of Indiana's 75,000 kindergartners are in full-day programs.\nKernan said he would ask the General Assembly this session to divert $30 million in lottery profits and casino taxes each of the next three years from a teacher pension fund and spend it on full-day kindergarten.\nRep. Greg Porter of Indianapolis, a fellow Democrat and chairman of the House Education Committee, said he would fully back the proposal.\nO'Bannon made optional full-day kindergarten his top legislative priority in 1999, his third year in office. The cost to implement it statewide then, when the state had a large surplus, was estimated to be $111 million over two years.\nMany lawmakers in both parties supported the concept, as did Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Suellen Reed. They agreed with O'Bannon that full-day kindergarten had a proven track record of giving youngsters an advantage in subsequent grades and improving test scores.\nBut Republicans who controlled the Senate wanted to allow schools to use a proposed $111 million funding increase for full-day kindergarten or other things, such as remediation, summer school or reading initiatives. O'Bannon refused to compromise, saying full-day kindergarten would get lost in the shuffle of available programs.\nThe announcement by Kernan, who is running for a full term a governor, means that both leading gubernatorial candidates will be supporting full-day kindergarten.\nRepublican candidate Mitch Daniels said in December that he would seek an optional full-day kindergarten for all students. He did not say where the money would come from but said he was prepared to take money from other areas to pay for it.\n"It will not be an easy issue," Daniels said at the time.