Universal Preschool

(AKA Universal Pre-k or Preschool for All) 

in the News

• Research based studies that show significant positive outcomes for children who attend preschool, especially children who are "at risk."
• Public School reformers who feel that many children start out behind in school for a variety of reasons including lack of social skills, not knowing English or lack of experience in a group educational setting.
• Advocates who see society as having a responsibility to all children
• The rate of return for preschool in later years for children who have access to preschool.
• The Information below was provided by: DLC | Model Initiatives | July 20, 2006
• Studies of high-quality preschool programs in North Carolina and Michigan have found that public investments in such programs could, in fact, deliver a 7-to-1 return in the long run, in the form of increased productivity and decreased social spending.
• A University of Georgia study found that the pre-K students improved their school readiness scores relative to national norms. It also found that the pre-K system eliminated the skills gap between universal pre-K students and the more affluent students whose parents sent them to private programs.
• Oklahoma's system has gotten impressive results. A Georgetown University study found gains in the children's cognitive and language assessment scores -- particularly among African-American and Hispanic children, whose scores improved by an average of 17 percent and 54 percent, respectively. As of 2006, 98 percent of Oklahoma school districts offer pre-k programs, up 30 percent since 1998.
• This allows the children of the community to get preschool from a school district that is free to all children.
• This allows children to have a school setting and get to know the school and that children that they will be attending school with.
• The free programs help those in need of preschool by assessing them and making sure that the child is developing at the right pace for preschool.

• Studies failed to demonstrate significant improvement in outcomes after Oklahoma and Georgia implemented universal preschool programs. Last year, the gains in reading scores of fourth graders in both states ranked among the bottom 10 on the National Assessment of Education Progress tests--the premier benchmark for comparing student performance across states. None of the 10 best performing states had universal preschool programs.
• Critics have charged that the costs of universal preschool are often underestimated. One example cited is from an assessment of a universal day care program in Quebec which found the final price tag for Quebec's day care program to be 33 times what was originally projected. It had grown from a projected $230 million over five years, to annual costs of $1.7 billion. Much of this increase was attributed to higher operating costs, including large wage increases for day care workers (40 percent increase over four years).
• Critics charge that long waiting lists result in disadvantaged children competing with higher income children for preschool access. In Quebec low-income households lost their child care tax deductions as they were discontinued in order to finance the universal preschool program. Yet with access to the universal preschools limited, the children of low-income households were underrepresented in the Quebec program, with half its day care spaces taken by families in the top 30 percent income bracket.
• Some home schooling advocates have argued that children should be educated by their families and not by the government
• Some political activists have argued that government should not provide such services, or that those services should remain privatized. Others opposed complain of the taxes imposed to fund such programs, or argue that tax revenues should be redirected to other programs
• Some independent preschool providers have argued universal preschool programs pose an economic threat to private providers
• Free preschool has shut down several centers or privates home providers due to the schools districts opening a preschool program for the children in the community.These interest need to be more in depth of the child's learning so the school district is not just moving into an other project before the children learn about the one they were just on.

The key for success is:
QUALITY EDUCATION.
I believe that by exposing children to:
Influential -  Meaningful - Experiences (T.I.M.E.)
they can require the proper skills they need in order to be successful. I created this site in order to educate parents, teachers and adult role models in general on how to provide quality education to preschoolers.