Argus Leader has been informed

Terry Woster has just put this up on the Argus Leader web site:

The South Dakota House will decide this morning whether to debate a seemingly simple but surprisingly controversial proposal to tell the state Board of Education to write standards for preschool accreditation.

Supporters say the standards would be voluntary, but opponents fear the long-term outcome would be mandatory pre-kindergarten programs statewide.

The bill passed the Senate but died in a House committee. Supporters smoked it out, a move that took 24 votes. They need a majority of the House, 36 votes, to place it on today's debate calendar.

If that fails, the measure probably is dead for the year.

On Wednesday morning I showed Terry Woster, along with Bill Harlan of the Rapid City Journal, all the research that I have dug up on this web site including the 82 page standards already available on the SD DOE web site, that Dr Gera Jacobs from USD introduced those standards with the help of the NAEYC, that she was a member of NAEYC, and that the NAEYC already provides accreditation to private providers, and have in fact already accredited six South Dakota providers including Citibank, Sanford, the VA, and Ellsworth.

After seeing the above update I contacted Randell Beck, the executive editor of the Argus Leader, by phone and informed him about the above facts and that I have so informed his reporter Terry Woster. I argued that the Sioux Falls pilot program can move forward and become obtain accreditation without SB 115.

He said he was not aware and will check into this. We will see. Stay tuned.