More at Four Levels Playing Field for 126 WNC Kids
The Asheville Citizen-Times
December 26, 2001

One hundred and twenty-six Western North Carolina 4-year-olds will get the chance to start school on an even footing with their more fortunate peers, thanks to Gov. Mike Easley's More at Four program.

Buncombe County is one of 11 in North Carolina to participate in the More at Four pilot program, enrolling 20 at-risk four-year-olds at seven schools or day care centers. Another 106 will be served at 24 locations in Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties.

More at Four is designed to help 4-year-olds deemed at risk for failing in school due to such family factors as poverty, lack of education or lack of English language proficiency. The children, who are not now enrolled in pre-school, will receive help with language and motor skills as well as intellectual, social and emotional development. The program received $6.5 million in start-up money from the General Assembly this year.

The Western North Carolina grants are a testament to quality of school systems and day-care centers in the mountains. According to Easley's office, first-year More at Four money is going "to local communities for high quality pre-K programs that build on existing early childhood services, including public schools, community-based child care centers and preschools, and Head Start programs."

In Buncombe County, the state will put up $55,800 and Smart Start, which will administer the program, will kick in $53,000. Asheville and Buncombe County schools will provide teachers and classrooms.

Ron Bradford, executive director of Smart Start, stressed the importance of the county's child-care system in obtaining the state money.

"To be part of the governor's pilot program is a testament to a lot of people who have worked very hard behind the scene for the last several years," he said. "The More at Four initiative creates preschool opportunities for children who are not currently being served in their communities. Any time you can help children and families you are helping the entire community."

The 20 first-year students will be chosen from waiting lists of city and county schools and Head Start.

In the other seven counties, the state money goes to the Region A Partnership for Children. "We're very excited about it, thrilled about it," said Region A Director June Smith. "We will draw some children from waiting lists, but we also will be recruiting some children who aren't in child care and are with a parent in the home, but are at risk because the parent doesn't read or isn't a high-school graduate."

The Declaration of Independence may say everyone is created equal, but in practice some people are a lot more equal than others due to their parents' income or education. The great fallacy of standardized testing is that it measures a student's abilities; in fact, test scores are almost as much a measure of family income as anything else.

If the less fortunate children are to have any chance in school, they at least need to start from the same point as those children who already have been taught educational and social skills before they first set foot in a classroom. A child who enters kindergarten not knowing what a pencil or a book is has little chance of staying with his peers.

Ashley Thrift, chairman of the North Carolina Partnership for Children, put it very well last month when he said, "Every child counts." More at Four is designed to help make that a reality, and 126 mountain 4-year-olds will be the better for it.