To some, it’s laughable – the concept of a private, preparatory preschool, as the first step on the inside track to an Ivy League education. To others, it’s a serious matter. Perhaps you’ve heard about the ultra-competitive nursery school system in Manhattan. According to Gabriella Rowe, head of The Village School here in Houston, and the former head of New York's Mandell School, some elements of that hyper-competitiveness may be beginning to crop up here in Greater Houston. She has, for instance, noticed more preschool and Kindergarten admissions counselors and consultants popping up here.
On this edition of Houston Matters, we talk with Rowe about our community's early education landscape, and the lengths some parents will go to get their child into a so-called “feeder” preschool or kindergarten program. We also talk with Keryth Hauch, a mother of two who explored the admissions process and private preschool for one of her kids, but ended up going with a public school instead. Then we welcome your questions about early childhood education for Dr. April Crawford, Director of the Texas School Ready! Project at the Children's Learning Institute.
Also this hour: A lot can happen in a week — some of it good, some of it bad, some of it downright ugly. Each Friday, we turn to our panel of “non-experts” to parse The Good the Bad and the Ugly of the week’s news. On today’s panel: Houston Chronicle columnist Lisa Falkenberg, Houston-based comedian Elaine Phillips, and Loris Simon, Visual Media Consultant for Houston-based Literal: Latin American Voices magazine. Our panel will discuss newly-released crime data in Houston, approval for Uber and other app-based paid ride services to operate at Houston airports, and a promotional event from Cullen’s American Grille in Clear Lake, which is offering a $2,900-per-person meal featuring an opportunity (for an additional charge, of course) to taste an extremely rare Scotch, which retails for a suggested $38,000.
Plus: Houston band The Suffers drops by Houston Public Media to talk about their music and play a couple of songs in our George P. Geary Performance Studio.
