Posted on 03/15/2013 5:39:04 AM PDT by IbJensen
In his State of the Union address, President Obama said he wanted to “make high-quality preschool available to every child in America” and “make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind.”
So Heritage experts took a look at the President’s plan to see if it would actually help America’s needy children get ahead in the “race of life.”
Another government-controlled, top-down, one-size-fits-all program—what could go wrong?
Look at the government’s record. As Heritage’s Lindsey Burke, the Will Skillman Fellow in Education, and research associate Rachel Sheffield point out in their new paper, “Washington already has a poor track record for K–12 education, with federal spending nearly tripling over the past three decades while academic achievement and attainment languishes.”
Look at the government preschool we already have. There are already 45 government preschool programs run by numerous federal agencies, including the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Agriculture, the Interior, and Housing and Urban Development. Burke and Sheffield note that these 45 programs “are estimated to cost taxpayers more than $20 billion annually. Many are duplicative and ineffective, failing to serve the needs of children from low-income families.”
Head Start, of course, has already shown us the ways government preschool can fail American children:
After nearly 50 years of operation, the federal Head Start program has failed to improve the educational outcomes and kindergarten readiness of participating children. Head Start should be eliminated, or at the very least it should be reformed, to allow states the flexibility to make their Head Start funds portable, allowing families to use their dollars to send their children to a private preschool of their choice.
The President’s new proposal wouldn’t help low-income children. Low-income families already have access to taxpayer-funded preschool through state programs and Head Start (which, if it continues to be funded, should be reformed to serve them better). President Obama’s proposal would subsidize middle-income and upper-income families—with no new benefit to low-income parents.
Three-quarters of four-year-olds are already in preschool. Many parents prefer to care for their young children at home. But for those who want preschool programs, there are a variety of programs available. There is no public demand for new, large-scale government spending in this area. Burke and Sheffield report that “An estimated 74 percent of four-year-old children are enrolled in preschool, public and private, across the country.”
Look at the academic evidence. Do these formal preschool programs really help kids in their academic careers? Our authors write: “Evaluations of preschool programs consistently find that any gains children make as a result of preschool quickly fade away in their early elementary years.” The Obama administration turns to a 50-year-old evaluation of a high-intervention preschool program with 58 at-risk children to make his case for taxpayer-funded, universal preschool. That means President Obama is making what researcher Russ Whitehurst calls “a prodigious leap of faith.” The outcomes of that program, known as the Perry Preschool Project, have never been replicated.
It is far more likely that the President’s proposal will produce outcomes akin to Head Start, which, according to the scientifically rigorous evaluations conducted by Health and Human Services, are abysmal.
Everyone wants children to have the best start in life. Large-scale government preschool programs are not the way to ensure that happens.
IMHO gutless phony barely scratches the surface so thanks for your reasoned and polite approach. /s
What these programs actually offer kids is a safe, regular, clean, structured environment to get them out of the extreme chaos that is their home life. These kids’ “homes” are sleeping on a different floor every night, loud nasty rap music, occasional food items, not real meals, cursing and fighting, beating, trash, filth, drinking and drugging. A preschool and a regular schedule is a lifeline.
kids is a safe, regular, clean, structured environment to get them out of the extreme chaos that is their home life. These kids’ “homes” are sleeping on a different floor every night, loud nasty rap music, occasional food items, not real meals, cursing and fighting, beating, trash, filth, drinking and drugging. A preschool and a regular schedule is a lifeline.
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Kids in this situaion need to be placed in orphanages, civilized and trained to be useful citizens. Not left in tragic, uncared-for dysregulated situations.
Yes, some families aren’t worth preserving. But, the kids want to be with their “parents” in many cases. It is a horrible situation. When the kids are removed it is not pretty, they are screaming and crying and so are their parents, it is done by force. It is ugly.
WE don’t but THEY do.
The longer the bastards in the “Educational” Establishment have the young minds under their control, the better they can brainwash them into thinking Marxist subversives like the monster in the White House, are the right choice in elections.
And they bring those learned cultural behaviors into the school and pollute the efforts of the few families left who are trying to properly raise their kids. No thanks.
you are exhibiting your me only mindset
Maybe, but they don't want that very much. For example, they don't want it enough even to express disapproval of promiscuous sex, let alone take action to discourage this behavior.
They don't want it enough to use the educational systems currently in existence to teach reading and math in ways that are proven effective.
Maybe it would be more accurate to say, "Everyone wishes children could have the best start in life without in any way requiring adults to move beyond the toddler-level value of 'I want what I want when I want it.' "
I don’t think kids who are being raised to be calm, polite, little citizens need to be exposed to those who have been raised to think obscene and violent language and actions are normal. When my daughter was in elementary school, she was embarassed on the school bus by another little girl who got on top of her and started humping her. She didn’t even know what was going on when the older kids made fun of her from then on out. But that’s what the child had observed in her “home.”
Any individual or group that espouses homosexual and lesbian weddings, transgendered bathrooms, and sessions in the lower grades that cover (almost everything about) the glories of homosexuality has no business running this country.
They want to get their filthy hands on our children and grandchildren as early as possible. Deny them this vehemently.
Good summary.
And you, Yardbird, are exhibiting your one-track mindset, albeit in incorrect grammar.
Archie’s comments were on target and are in step with most of us who contribute to and use this website.
RE: #3:
So. In order to save those who are disadvantaged by having utterly worthless parents, you endorse forcing those who come from caring households to waste another year of their young lives exposed to hopeless cases.
Give them breakfast, lunch and, yes, even dinner.
How about yanking them out of their dysfunctional homes, sterilizing their parents and placing them in orphanages?
It makes just as much sense as creating another federally edicted year of schooling .
It becomes clear as to which side of the line you stand.
My kids go to private school and there is the home school option.
But you with your attitude are protecting the fortunate from the unfortunate and condemning the unfortunate to floundering in their mess. Weren’t you the one that recently pointed out to me that Jesus ate with tax collectors and prostitutes? Is it correct to simply condemn the unfortunate as hopeless?
Actually, my recommendation is to make urban areas very business friendly so that anyone who wants a job can find one and thereby bring hope back into the equation. You realize, of course, that a lot of these awful problems are exacerbated by a devastated economy.
what were you thinking having her on the school bus
my name is not yardbird, you are hilarious, it spells “Wildstreak” and no, not ungrammatical, I am an English major. ding dong anybody home?
well don’t send your children then, you have options.
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