Will Preschool
Budget Cuts
Damage a
Generation
Three days before the end of preschool, Ms.
Sabrena and the children sit around the table
playing Bingo on boards the size of placemats.
Nawal only needs one more tile to win. Tiny and
delicate, with dark, serious eyes, she has quietly
assembled a dangerous arsenal. Ms. Sabrena notices and raises an eyebrow. “You have to watch
out for the quiet ones,” she says. But a few moments later, when Nawal’s number comes up,
Nawal won’t say the one word her teacher wants
to hear. Ms. Sabrena encourages her: “What do
you say?” Nawal places her tile on the board,
looks straight ahead and says nothing.
Ms. Sabrena—Sabrena Robinson to those over
three feet tall—works at a childcare center in Raleigh, North Carolina, a state with one of the most
acclaimed child care systems in the country. From
the outside, the center looks like nothing special:
BY SAKI KNAFO
PHOTOGRAPHS BY
BRYAN REGAN