TALLAHASSEE — It’s official: Along with play time,

snacks and naps, Florida tots will now get a little high-brow entertainment

each day.

A law that Gov. Lawton Chiles signed Thursday requires all state-funded child

care centers and preschools to play classical music and read

to children for 30 minutes each day. Private day-care centers will be

encouraged, but not required, to do the same. The so-called “Beethoven’s

Babies Law” was pushed by state Sen. Bill Turner, a Miami Democrat, who cites

research showing that classical music boosts brain power.

“I want all the kids in the state of Florida to be the best

and brightest,” Turner said.

No one is sure how the law will be enforced.

“You think they are going to send some policeman over to the

center to see if we’re

playing classical music?” said Betty Bohan, who oversees four

child care centers run by

the YWCA in Pinellas County. “I’m a great believer in the

benefits of classical music,

but I think it is an infringement on the rights of child care

centers for the state to choose

what they are supposed to do.”

Bohan said the YWCA day care centers play all sorts of music

during the day for

children. They play classical music, she said, at nap time.

Bohan and other child-care advocates say the Beethoven’s

Babies Law is politically

catchy but more expensive fixes are needed. Among them:

providing training and higher

wages for child care workers to cut down on turnover.

“The Beethoven bill is one way of trying to have an impact on

quality care, but there are

other ways the Legislature has begun to address quality,”

said Susan Muenchow,

executive director of the Florida Childrens Forum, a

children’s advocacy group.

Muenchow pointed to two actions by the Legislature this year:

Lawmakers set aside

$2-million to give bonuses or pay raises to child care

workers who get additional

training, and they provided $4.7-million in subsidies so that

low-income parents can

send their children to accredited child-care centers.

Bohan wants to see more emphasis on pay.

“The people who work in child care make about the lowest of

any wage earner in the

nation, and they are dealing with our most important

citizens,” she said.

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