SAVE THE PARENTS AS TEACHERS PROGRAM

As journalists, we often stand impassively on the sidelines, observing the ever-unfolding drama of life.

But sometimes that drama comes too close to home to remain silent.

As the father of a 3-month-old, bright-eyed baby girl, I am upset over the Cape Girardeau Board of Education's decision to reduce staffing for the Parents as Teachers program.

Currently, the program operates with four full-time parent educators and a full-time secretary. With the budget cuts, the staff will be reduced to two full-time educators and a half-time secretary.

These cuts will literally devastate the program. Now, the district must eliminate service for 100 to 120 families. Currently 340 families with children from birth to age 3 are served by the program.

Not only will families be cut from the program next year, but the parent educators won't be able to take on any new families.

All of this is of particular concern to my wife and I, because our daughter, Rebecca, was one of the last ones enrolled in the program before the announced budget cuts. We don't want to see her cut from the program.

The home visits we receive from a parent educator are invaluable for our child's development, as well as for us as first-time parents.

Ironically, these budget cuts are coming at a time when Missouri's Parents as Teachers program is being lauded as a model for the nation.

Countless education reports have emphasized the importance of parents as teachers of their children. Parents as Teachers helps to foster early education and development of children. It tells parents what to look for in their child's development. And visits by a parent educator help to spot possible developmental problems in these early stages, when they can more easily be corrected.

My wife and I have seen the program's benefits first-hand. Our 2-year-old nephew was slow to talk, and his speech was hard to understand. We suggested his parents talk with parent educators in his St. Louis school district. A test revealed a hearing problem, and our nephew has since had an operation. He will now undergo speech therapy to catch him up with other children his age. This is a real Parents as Teachers success story. If his hearing problem had not been corrected, he could have faced a hard time learning in kindergarten. The schools also helped themselves by finding this problem early.

Parents as Teachers is a statewide program. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education provides some funding, but local school districts also contribute funds.

Parents are not required to participate. The program is voluntary.

Sadly, the state has cut funding for Parents as Teachers. As a result, the school district had planned to cut back to three parent educators. But the local budget cut will now reduce that number to two.

Any cuts are tough to take, but reducing the staff by 50 percent drastically weakens the program.

The state requires parent educators to see families in the program a minimum of five times during the school year. Four of those contacts must be home visits in order to qualify for state funding. Group parent meetings are also held throughout the year.

It's these home visits that make this program special.

As Susan Bartlett, the local program coordinator and a parent educator has pointed out: "Personal contact is much more time consuming, but that is where the real impact of Parents as Teachers takes place. We can talk with parents about their child, model behaviors for them and provide them timely information about child development. It is the most important component of the program."

The local budget cuts will save about $32,000 in the coming school year. But to focus on such "savings" is short-sighted.

It's far cheaper and more effective to get children started on the right foot educationally and developmentally at the earliest possible age.

The Cape Girardeau School District should be encouraging parent involvement, not discouraging it.

Cape Girardeau's Vision 2000 group has been a proponent of the Parents as Teachers program. Perhaps that group could raise money to help retain adequate staffing for the program.

Businesses, as well, might pitch in, as they have with the Adopt-A-School program. The Parents as Teachers program is, after all, a school of sorts, with parents' homes being the classrooms.

For Rebecca's sake and others, I hope some funding solution can be found. In the long run, a healthy Parents as Teachers program could pay big dividends for us all.