Tuesday, February 04, 2014

Universal Pre-K FAIL. . .

Rep. Hanna and Senator Gillibrand are at it again, promoting their "Strong Start for America's Children Act".
"If we expect our children to walk through the doors of our colleges and universities tomorrow, and succeed in our economy in the years ahead – we need universal pre-k," Gillibrand said in the release."High quality early learning leads to strong cognitive, social, emotional and language development – key skills for a bright future."
The problem with this proposal is that these things have been tried before, but research -- performed by think tanks on both sides of the political aisle -- shows that the results are inconclusive.

Heritage: Universal Preschool’s Empty Promises
For most children, “70 to 80 percent of the cognitive gains associated with attending prekindergarten have faded out by the spring of the first grade.”[19]
Brookings: Can We Be Hard-Headed About Preschool? A Look at Universal and Targeted Pre-K
If a year of Head Start does not improve achievement in elementary school, should we assume that a year of state pre-K does?
Since we now borrow 40 cents out of every federal dollar spent, should we borrow more to achieve inconclusive results?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hanna MUST go. He has developed a case of Potomic Fever. Symptoms include willingness to forget campaign promises, compromising of principles,progressive tilting, loving the "lifestyle" of congress.

Anonymous said...

Just another feel good, sound good program that will cost a fortune and produce little. How could Hanna call himself anything but a liberal?