The Childhood Development Center (CDC) has served Keene State College for over four decades, according to the KSC website.
After those four decades, the center will now be operated by the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central and Northern New Hampshire, as reported by The Equinox.
Nathalie Houder, executive vice president for finance and administration, told The Equinox, “The CDC subsidizes student dollars,” and “We were not able to continue it in the way it was financially.”
Outsourcing may be a quick and easy solution for the college to save money, but it raises some concerns regarding leadership changes. If the center isn’t owned by the school, the Boys and Girls Club has full control over operations.
While we do sympathize with the corner KSC is backed into, The Equinox is concerned for the future of Early Childhood Education majors and how they will continue to gain real-world experience.
Houder said, “It’ll [The Boys and Girls Club] continue the relationship between the two, but the program [Early Childhood Education] is not dependent on the CDC,” according to The Equinox. Until we see real action, there is no telling how exactly the program’s relationship will continue.
The CDC brings joy and life to the campus and serves the community alongside education majors.
Keene State has served as a teaching college since the days it was known as Keene Normal School and the CDC allows for education majors to apply what they’ve learned in a classroom with children. Our education programs are one of the staples of KSC. We should build on its strong foundation instead of risking potential disruptions to the center’s structure or operations
“Our inspirational program has been accredited since 1954 by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and exceeds state and national standards. Only one third of all teacher education programs in the U.S. are nationally accredited,” according to the KSC’s website.
The core of Keene State includes our ‘inspirational’ teaching program. Much like in the gym, we must strengthen our core. The future of our institution is dependent on the decisions being made right now.
If we chip away at our core, what happens when, down the line, we are asked to defend KSC as a higher education institution? Would we still be able to consider our teacher education program ‘inspirational’?
Once the Boys and Girls Club takes over operations in the fall, it is likely we will never see the return of a KSC-operated CDC.
When we bring in private organizations, even a nonprofit like The Boys and Girls Club, it can feel more like a business transaction with private interest involved.
Unless we know that the Boys and Girls Club was our one true solution, how can students have confidence in major decisions that affect their education? How much of the student experience are we willing to sacrifice at the hands of our “anti-public education” government?
Outsourcing will only get us so far and it puts our institution in a vulnerable spot. There needs to be more proactive conversations held about long-term strategies to preserve our fundamental programs.
Keene State cannot and will not survive on countless temporary fixes. It’s like attempting to sail a boat with a major hole in the deck; each layer of duct tape can only do so much. We won’t get very far before we all sink.
