Teachers Speak Out for Preschool for All

This week is spring break for Seattle Public Schools, which means we got a special opportunity to hear from elementary and preschool teachers at the Council’s Education and Governance Committee this morning. They delivered powerful testimony about what Preschool for All would mean for them and their classrooms.

The benefits of Preschool for All extend up through the educational system. On our East Coast study mission, we learned Boston Public Schools is now undertaking a review of elementary school curricula because it is no longer challenging enough for the kids coming out of their universal preschool program.

Watch what Seattle’s teachers had to say:

Amanda Poch, a kindergarten teacher at West Seattle Elementary, shared a story about the difficulty one mother had finding affordable preschool:

Stephanie Paolone, a SPS first grade teacher, described the difference in reading levels she sees between her students that attended preschool and those that didn’t:

Uti Cleveland, first grade teacher at Highland Park Elementary, talked about ending cycles of poverty through investments in early education:  

Julia Matthews, kindergarten teacher at Rainier View Elementary, spoke of her desire to make a difference earlier in people’s lives, transitioning from the field of law and justice to education:

Dominique Alex, Director of the Genessee Early Learning Center, explained “how children start has everything to do with how they finish”: