"I have been teaching at the kindergarten level for 10 years now. Since the passage of the so-called No Child Left Behind Act, I have seen more children left behind by tests, tests, and more tests.

"Kindergarten is the time for children to come to school and learn to love learning. It is the time for children to build a strong foundation of learning that will support them as life-long learners. Instead, kindergarten has become a place where children arrive already behind, and the expectations continue to rise without the proper amount of support. We do not have funding for every child who is eligible to attend Head Start or another preschool program.

"We do not have funding for all children to attend a full day of kindergarten. We do not have funding to assist parents in making better child care choices. We do not have the funding to find students who have learning difficulties before they enter school.

"This year I started with a class of over 20 students. Some of these students were able to attend extended-day kindergarten--these few students made remarkable progress. Sadly, there was only room for six of my students. That meant that another six to eight students who could have benefitted were left behind. There is not enough funding for full-day kindergarten for all. At the end of the year, a few of my lowest students had never had the opportunity to join our full day program.

"My district has placed a high priority on testing students, but it has done little to provide the resources we need to teach our students."

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