Our Democratic officials are all reading from the same hymnal. Another State of the Union address; another call for the federal funding of universal pre-kindergarten. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has chimed in with his call for phasing in pre-k. The mayor of Syracuse has added her voice, and the Big Apple’s new mayor rode […]
Our Democratic officials are all reading from the same hymnal.
Another State of the Union address; another call for the federal funding of universal pre-kindergarten. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has chimed in with his call for phasing in pre-k. The mayor of Syracuse has added her voice, and the Big Apple’s new mayor rode to victory on the need to immediately implement pre-k.
They tell us that pre-k will level the playing field for low-income children so that they can catch up to middle-class kids by the time they reach kindergarten. Early intervention will mitigate some of the disadvantages of poverty.
Surely, the collective call for universal pre-k is based on its success. After all, we have had the Head Start program since 1965, which currently covers 900,000 children for an annual cost of more than $7 billion, or $8,000 per child. President Obama wants to double the federal expenditure and encourage the states to join him in making pre-k universal.
The most comprehensive study of Head Start, sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services, followed 4,667 3- and 4-year-olds in a national sample covering 23 states. The study examined cognitive development, social-emotional development, health status and access to health, and parenting practices. While the children showed positive development in the program, the improvements did not carry into kindergarten or elementary grades. The only significant positive effect was an improvement in children’s attention as reported by the parents. Unfortunately, independent assessors and teachers saw no improvement.
Defenders of Head Start contend that the curriculum and teacher education need to be improved to produce a high-quality program. Independent studies by Peter Bernardy and a team from the University of North Carolina headed by Diane Early find very low correlations between curriculum quality and teacher education and cognitive and social-emotional outcomes in pre-school programs.
Any rational person running a cost-benefit ratio of the program would conclude it was ineffective and a waste of hundreds of billions of dollars. Based on this, one would either abandon the program or reconfigure it to produce the desired results. I wonder whether the promoters of universal pre-k ever considered a national demonstration program to prove that pre-school for everyone actually works?
Which leads me to conclude that politics is not necessarily a rational business. Too many politicians are measured by their inputs, not their outcomes. The all-too-common answer to solving problems is to express your concern verbally and then spend money. Otherwise, how do you explain doubling down on a failed program?
Pre-k has now attained the status of motherhood and apple pie. It cannot be questioned by mere reason. Whatever America does to cancel our inequality is worth the effort and cost.
Excelsior!
Norman Poltenson is publisher of The Central New York Business Journal. Contact him at npoltenson@cnybj.com