Steve Barnett, the co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research, ceded no ground to Checker. He came out of his corner swinging and never stopped. The book is "inaccurate and poorly reasoned," "cherry picks" the evidence, and is full of "errors and exaggerations."
An even-handed read of the evidence shows that preschool for all is a better policy.
And this was an instant classic:
Like Jay-Z, Reroute the Preschool Juggernaut has 99 problems. I'm not going to list all of them and I'm not going to rap.
He went on to argue that high-quality preschool programs like the Chicago Parent-Child Center are a lot less expensive than Checker claims. And that rigorous research studies show universal preschool programs to be more effective than targeted ones because of "peer effects." (He didn't quite spell this out, but I assume he means that poor kids are better off if they get to go to preschool with middle class peers.)
Sparks fly!
Image of Jay-Z from iknowtheledge.com.
