The state Senate has passed legislation requiring kindergarten for every five year old in Wisconsin. The bill passed on a party line 17-15 vote Tuesday, following Assembly passage of the legislation last week.
The problem which the problem is designed to address – kids whose parents enroll them in kindergarten but don’t see to it they attend regularly – is largely a Milwaukee problem, according to Neenah Republican state Senator Mike Ellis. “What you’re doing to solve a problem in the Milwaukee school system, is imposing a mandate on the other school districts in the state of Wisconsin,” said Ellis. “I surveyed my school districts. They don’t have this problem.”
AUDIO: State Senator Mike Ellis (5:50 MP3)
“This is not a Milwaukee-only problem,” countered by the bill’s Senate sponsor, Milwaukee Democrat, Senator Spencer Coggs. “This happens across the state. It’s a small number of children, but it happens across the state.”
AUDIO: State Senator Spencer Coggs (2:00 MP3)
Coggs said local districts will be able to develop policies to determine whether or not individual six year old students ready for first grade – and that parents of five year-olds will be subject to state truancy laws if their kids aren’t attending kindergarten. Current state law doesn’t mandate that five year-old children attend kindergarten. Proponents of the legislation say too many parents are using kindergarten as day care, enrolling their five year-old kids, but not seeing to it that the children attend on a regular basis.
