President Obama made several education-related proposals in his State of the Union speech Tuesday evening. Among them was a recommendation for universal preschool. Here’s a quote from the speech (read the full text HERE):
“You know, study after study shows that the sooner a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road. But today, fewer than three in ten 4-year-olds are enrolled in a high-quality preschool program. Most middle-class parents can’t afford a few hundred bucks a week for private preschool. And for poor kids who need help the most, this lack of access to preschool education can shadow them for the rest of their lives.
So, tonight, I propose working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every single child in America.
That’s something we should be able to do.
Every dollar we invest in high-quality early childhood 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, form more stable families of their own. We know this works. 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.”
I’ve written a lot about state, federal and locally-funded preschool over the years, and this year, about transitional kindergarten, which is a kind of hybrid preschool/kindergarten program for students who turn five late in the calendar year and are no longer are eligible to enroll in kindergarten. Many of our inland schools offer preschool programs of some kind, but they’re generally not universally available to the community. And many of the programs have suffered because of budget cuts in recent years.
Still, they are programs that educators here believe are very important to students and their long-term educations. One thing educators say over and over again is that preschool is more important now because standards in kindergarten have increased so much – students today learn in kindergarten what they used to learn in first grade. And teachers say you can tell within the first few minutes of the first day which students have attended preschool and which students haven’t. Preschool also gives educators another year to help children who are learning English and identify and begin addressing special education issues such as speech or hearing delays that can be resolved more quickly when caught early.
What do you think of the President’s proposal? Should affordable, or free, preschool be available to all children? Share your thoughts in the comments.