I read with great interest the other day a Union Leader article about the Hudson School District taking on the State of New Hampshire over the mandate for Kindergarten. They have never had Kindergarten in their school system, even though it was brought up in a Warrant Article at the Town Meeting about 10 years ago. It was soundly rejected at that time.

The article says:

“School board Chairman David Alukonis said the lawsuit isn't about the school board's rejection of public kindergarten; it is a rejection of the state telling Hudson what to do.”

That is the point we must not forget. I am not against Kindergarten; in fact I think it is good to start teaching your children early. This is about the State mandating city/town spending for what basically is a state program. Parents are the most important teacher children have and they will do everything they can to prepare their children for a successful school career and Kindergarten is a good program to help the parents. I am not crazy about ½ day Kindergarten and my girls went to full day Kindergarten. The article goes on:

"In these economic times, in Hudson we have to be very conservative," he said. "In my mind, given the things that we have on our agenda, (kindergarten) is a lower priority." Already, 95 percent of the town's 5-year-olds attend private kindergarten, so all the town would be doing is supplanting private dollars with public dollars "and not getting any educational benefit from it," he said.