Chiles okays requiring reading, classical music
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.