In his State of the Union Address, President Obama called for universal preschool for all children. I am a big believer in school before first grade. Both of our children started at a Montessori school when they three years old. They went half days when they were three and four and then full day when they were five. It was great for them. Any preschooler would benefit from such a school. The trouble is that is not what most 4-year olds are going to get.
If children go to a preschool run by their local public school, then kids who live in good public school districts will probably go to a good preschool. But kids who live in school districts that aren’t doing the job? They will go to a preschool that isn’t doing the job either. In other words, the kids who arguably need a good preschool the most won’t get it.
So let me make a suggestion. Let’s not force school districts that don’t have preschool to start providing it now. They probably don’t have the money or the teachers to run a preschool for four-year olds, anyway. Instead of forcing them to do something they are not geared up to do, why don’t we just give the money to the parents and let them choose where to send their kids to preschool? That’s what we did.
I realize this sounds like the dreaded V-word: vouchers. But it’s different than vouchers for grades 1-12, where people worry that money will be taken away from the public schools to pay for the vouchers. These schools never had any money for preschool, so they’re not losing any money. In fact, giving the money to the parents and letting them choose, will help these public schools by not forcing them to do something extra when they already have plenty to do.
Also, there aren’t a lot of preschools out there, and it would take public school districts a long time to get set up to provide preschool. If parents have the money, though, and the ability to choose where to use it, good quality preschools could be started really soon, so more kids could get the benefit of preschool sooner.
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Note: This post talks about whether universal preschool is a good idea and who should choose where the children go. It does not address the question of which level of government should pay for it. The answer to that question is: Not the federal government. Schools at this level are the responsibility of state and local government; the federal government has other things to do.
There could be a few poorer states that need financial help to be able to afford universal preschool for their four-year olds. The federal government could help those states. Most states, however, can afford it – if they want to. If they don’t want to, because they would rather spend money on other things or they just aren’t good at efficiently running a state government, that is their choice. It is not the job of the federal government to pay because they don’t want to or can’t get their act together to do it themselves.
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