Parents can begin signing up their 4-year-olds for Florida's free statewide pre-kindergarten program this week, but the main thing they'll be getting is their name on a mailing list. That should put them at the head of the line to be notified of what's up in terms of hours, logistics, what will be taught and what providers they have to choose from. Eventually.

Lawmakers and the governor didn't turn their homework in on time following the 2002 voter-mandated early education program that is set to begin this August. The Legislature procrastinated during the 2003 session, and its members couldn't get it together during the 2004 regular session either.

Finally, during a special session this last December they passed a universal pre-k program. It still falls short, however, of what voters demanded in the constitutional amendment, which is intended to fundamentally change public school education by putting children in front of highly trained teachers in an educational setting a year earlier than most 4-year-olds are today.

Lawmakers have more work to do. Quite a lot. Only State Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, has so far proposed legislation that would push the implementing laws closer to the desired goal. She wants to double the hours from the current three hours a day, as the amendment indicated would be offered, and she wants state-approved curricula.

It's not only parents who don't know exactly what they're signing up for with the Agency for Workforce Innovation, which is overseeing the program. They know it will be free, with the state paying about $2,500 per student, and voluntary, and that it will be better than baby-sitting or no stimulating environment at all.

Also not yet sure about or entirely happy with what the state has in mind are the parochial and private providers who now run day care programs of various calibers and will handle most of the estimated 150,000 pre-K students because many public schools aren't expected to have enough classrooms.
The money the state will provide is probably insufficient to provide quality education, instead of baby-sitting. Providers know it costs more than $2,500 per student to hire college-trained teachers who would work with the children enough hours per day to really teach them, to offer the high-quality environment, and to offer transportation, just as public school busing is available for K-12.

The Florida Catholic Conference has said it's not likely to participate through its parochial prekindergarten providers because the state requires no benchmark testing to measure a school's success. And it joins other critics in arguing that providers ought not have the option of discriminating in what students they wish to accept, just as public K-12 classes must be open to children of varied capabilities.