Education is free at all levels, and an eight-year elementary program is obligatory for children.
"When we started, the elementary programs here had 200 reading programs, sometimes four or five different programs in the same school.
Mr. Hair (left), 41, is the principal of the preschool and elementary programs at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Mass.
Such elementary programs, he suggests, can even be used to explain the nature of space and time or outline the vagaries of visual perception.
In the elementary program, students have art, music, gym, theater, recess and lunch with their grade-level peers, but Ms. Flynn is their primary teacher for academic subjects.
"We may have to eliminate extra labs for remediation, or cut our high school alternative school, or our elementary programs for students who did not perform well on standardized tests.
Lillian Lowery, Delaware's secretary of education, said more flexibility in spending federal aid and helping failing schools would allow her state to try more creative approaches, like language immersion elementary programs, summer classes in science, math and engineering, and educational games.
For months, venture capitalist John Doerr has spent 10% of his time on the New Schools Venture Fund, a $20 million organization that funds public school projects like an elementary program that targets students likely to fall behind in math or reading.
Examples of other projects include kindergarten speech programs, elementary science programs, and speed reading in junior high school.
It is time to question the resources being outlaid to sports programs when elementary educational programs are being curtailed.
