Governor Romney recently vetoed an attempt at state mandated preschool. I haven't completed a thorough analysis of the legislation yet, but after an initial reading, I am inclined to agree with Romney's veto.
Several of this year's candidates for Governor have come out in support of Universal Preschool, and I'm certain their supporters as well as supporters of this legislation will continue to be organized and vocal.
From a policy perspective, I'm concerned at the lack of any sustainable budget plan. Even if we could count on the savings touted by some of the research highlighted on Strategies for Children's (SFC) website, do we really believe that the K-12 or Higher Ed proponents would stand for a cut based on the realization of those savings? Of course not, so there would be no monetary shift with which to fund the program.
Even assuming money was no object (that's so often the case in politics anyway), how certain are we that preschool is the best solution? Looking at the summary of longitudinal studies from SFC's website, it appears that preschool is compared to nothing. All well and good to have a control group, but this does not prove that preschool is any better than other types of learning activities, including those that take place in the home. I would be interested in seeing how preschool stacks up against programs which focus on building parenting skills. It seems to me those sorts of interventions have more potential for long-term benefits, if the proverb of teaching a man to fish has any merit.
But mostly, I am concerned that access to preschool, which I believe may help a targeted segment of the population, has been distorted into a legislative behemoth because in today's political world, everything must be "universally" applied. I don't like to encourage increased dependency on the state, but if there is indeed a problem caused by a general decline in basic parenting skills (and judging from the success of show like Supernanny and my own experience as a nanny, I wouldn't be surprised), then it's a societal problem that can be addressed. But, hopefully, it's a problem that has a solution. Universal preschool gets us entrenched. Once there, we will never go back. The result is a lose-lose proposal, that I predict, if passed, will result in further drains on municipal and K-12 resources, higher taxes, and ultimately (ironically) greater burdens on the families it purports to help.
Whatever your view, don't be silent. Write to your legislator.
Check out the discussion of universal preschool at Westford.com.
