Committee on Economic Development
2002
This report from the Committee on Economic Development could have been written decades ago by almost any advocacy group. With one exception, it reads like a run of the mill plea for federal and state governments to spend many billions to provide universal access to preschool for every American child from age 3. It focuses on access, money and government. It understates the failings of many existing preschool and day care programs already serving millions of American youngsters: their neglect of (and sometimes hostility toward) an organized, effective, school-readiness curriculum. It overstates the role of the federal government as funder, standard-setter and regulator. Its main virtue-that one exception-is that it wants these expanded pre-kindergarten programs to be delivered by a variety of public and private organizations and wants parents to be able to choose among them. It is, in that sense, a plea for universal pre-school vouchers for American families. It would probably be more compelling if the authors had paid any attention to budgetary realities and perhaps limited themselves to low-income children. It would surely be more compelling if it addressed the central flaw in much of what passes for pre-school today (including the beloved Headstart program): its failure to prepare children (especially poor children) for academic success when they reach school, a failure attributable in large measure to the widely held view among program operators and staff that their job is to nurture their wee charges but not to teach them sounds, shapes, colors, words and letters. How much more might be accomplished if the titans of industry who put their names to this report tackled the problem that needs to be solved before there's much point in seeking out tens of billions of dollars for more of the same. If you desire, nonetheless, to see for yourself, surf to www.ced.org and you will find information about ordering the report plus a PDF version to download.
