Preschool Education

My deepest wish on this subject is that it had been a Republican idea.  It makes perfect sense for it to be part of the platform for the party that has traditionally been seen as being pro-business and putting a greater emphasis on ensuring the economic health of the country.  Unfortunately, the emphasis has been on the effects of poverty and how we can right a wrong by providing preschool as a leg up.

That is just one way to see it.  To be competative in the world market in the 21st century America desperately needs to better prepare students to compete in that economy.  Our K-12 schools are woefully behind the world leaders, and there are very few things that can be done to fix that in the short run.  But adding preschool education for all students is a clear cut, managable, and quick way to start better preparing a work force for the challenges ahead.  And it makes sense for our country--surely even the plutocrats (as they like to be called--I prefer robber barons, but apparently calling them thieves hurts their feelings) want to have skilled labor that can make them money.  Let's create tax payers, starting at age three or four. Every study out there says it is money well spent, for all of us, not just the kids who go to preschool.

Don't take my word for it--here are the words of James Heckman, a Nobel prize winning economist from the University of Chicago (ie. an Economics Department that is well to the right of center):
1.  Inequalities in early childhood experiences and learning produceinequalities in ability, achievement, health, and adult success.
2.  While important, cognitive abilities alone are not as powerful as a package of cognitive skills and social skills--defined as attentiveness, perseverance, impulse control, and sociability.  In short, cognition and personality drive education and life success, with character development being an important and neglected factor.
3.  Adverse impacts of genetic, parental, and environmental resources can be overturned through investments in quality early childhood education that provide children and their parents the resources they need to properly develop cogniftive and personality skills that create productivity.
4.  Every dollar invested in high quality early childhood education produces a 7-10% per annum return on investment--which is significantly higher than other investments are yielding, and translates into more qualified workers, better productivity for the country, and more tax payers.  It may also translate into fewer by products of poverty, like crime, poor health, more jails, and more subsidized benefits--all of which would improve the quality of life of Americans and make us richer.