Middle class is bad place to be

My school has just started to have full-day kindergarten. It will cost $225 per child per month. Great. It is cheaper than day care.

The problem is I only work two days a week because I wanted to be home with my children while they were little. I don’t have my kids in day care. Plus, I have twins.

This is a quote from their pamphlet: “What is the difference between the curriculum for the full-day and half-day kindergarten programs? All students will receive the core curriculum in a half-day program. Those students who attend the full-day kindergarten program will engage in more in-depth learning experiences of the core curriculum during the additional time. In the full-day program students will focus the second half of their day on the literacy and math early learning standards. They will also receive music, physical education and media/technology instruction.”

Are you kidding me? So if the parents cannot afford the extras at school, they don’t get the better education in a public school. Isn’t that class discrimination? I pay my property taxes, my kids go to public school, but now they may not get additional education which is provided in their school because their parents cannot afford the fee?

What about the added students the full-day kindergartners are adding to the half-day classes that are already overcrowded? What is wrong with this picture?

The school wants $450 a month for full-day kindergarten from me. Gov. Quinn took $150 a month from my husband’s pay check. In this great economy we are going to be down $600 a month because of the government that is supposed to be providing these services through the $6,000 I pay in property taxes.

I am my own worse nightmare — I am middle class.

Sharon Fetting

Algonquin