Obama has called for more investment in early education in his State of the Union Speech:
Tonight, I propose working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every child in America. Every dollar we invest in high-quality early education can save more than seven dollars later on – by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime. In states that make it a priority to educate our youngest children, like Georgia or Oklahoma, studies show students grow up more likely to read and do math at grade level, graduate high school, hold a job, and form more stable families of their own. So let’s do what works, and make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind. Let’s give our kids that chance.
Lead by James Heckman’s research on the returns to early education, economists are generally supportive of the idea that this kind of investment in children has the highest return.
But how to pay for this? Education reform critics often claim that it is family life, socioeconomic characteristics, and other things outside of school’s control that determines how much a child learns. As Matt Yglesias has often said, this is ironically a case for reducing k-12 and college funding. I’m not saying we are spending too much on K-12, but when education reform critics make claims like they do it certainly implies this.
I think a goal of universal pre-k is far more achievable and far more desirable than a goal of universal college attendance. At the very least marginal educational dollars should be directed from college subsidies to early education. To ensure buy-in from education reformers and to make sure the money is spent well it is imperative that pre-k funding not be spent through the existing union dominated public school system that has proven so difficult to reform. Charters and choice should be a focus here.
I am supportive of the idea of universal pre-k, I think it could greatly improve lives and be worth the investment. I think James Heckman is right that we should focus on predistribution rather than redistribution. But as is usually the case, it depends on how it is implemented.