"Millstoners weigh in on budget vote" - Examiner, 5/10/07:

[T]he school tax rate in Millstone will increase by about 21 cents this year and will be $1.99 per $100 of assessed value.

Thatcher said he believes the school district "is going overboard with technology."

As for the full-day kindergarten, Thatcher said he doesn't know why that he, as a taxpayer, would have to provide nursery service for township kids.

"I'm not going to pay for baby-sitting," he said.

Grbelja said since the township in recent years changed its zoning to require developers to have larger lots in order to build, the number of children entering the school district has slowed.

Resident Dave Kurzmann said he does not believe the Millstone Township School District should be considered a part of the state's "I" District Factor Group (DFG).

The DFG measures a district's socioeconomic status, and ranges from "A" being the poorest districts to "J" being the wealthiest.

"There's not a lot of money in this town like some people think," he said.

Matthews said the children in her son's third-grade class all have laptops ...

I didn't want Kenny to attend kindergarten in trailers in the public school system.

Yet, if I waited until he was kindergarten age before beginning private school, he might not be accepted into the program.

So I entered him into the private school program at the earliest possible age. Yes, it was difficult to justify the full-day tuition on a half-day attention span. Kenny took naps at pre-school, almost every day.

Timmy gave up naps before he turned 2. So I wasn't paying his pre-school teacher to watch him sleep. He enters kindergarten in the fall and reads three-letter words and sounds out five- and six-letter words. He can write some words. For instance, he made a sign to hang on his old bedroom's door - a room he vacated this past weekend so that it may be renovated - which reads, "No Mom In!" (Have I mentioned before that he is very disturbed and uncomfortable with our present home remodel project?!)

I state Timmy's abilities because they are evidence of what a good instructional program can do with a child of average (or perhaps below-average) abilities. So, would I be able to enter him into a half-day public program after two years of full-day attendance? No, not even if the trailers have been turned into classrooms.

On the one hand, adults tell me, "Oh, kids get pushed too hard these days in school. Let 'em be kids!" Then other adults complain that kids today don't know nothin'. Kenny's preschool teacher told me that three-year-olds are sponges and the trick is to cram as much into their heads as possible. I tend to believe that - I've seen it! There's no question that young, young children benefit from structured learning. The only question is who should fund it - the child's parents through tuition or the child's community through taxes.