Pre-K as Equalizer by J.M. Holland

Public preschool has played a large part in the role of education as an equalizer for social injustice. Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty created Head Start as a major battalion in an effort to address systemic poverty in America. Since 1965 Head Start and other targeted pre-k programs have consistently shown their benefit to the at-risk students they serve and on a larger scale to society. But, school has become less about social leveling and more about business-like effectiveness and efficiency. It is this focus on business-like efficiency that has made the debate about funding preschool an argument of cost to the state instead of benefit to the child. In tough financial times, the public wants to fund programs that “pay off.”

In the past 20 years, the nation’s economic landscape has changed. The median family income rose mostly due to middle class families moving from one paycheck to two with less time for quality interactions with children. The increase in single parent families has also contributed to the influence of child care on families and schooling. The quality of child care outside the home ranges widely. As a result, children enter kindergarten with large gaps in their prior knowledge, social skills, and experiences. State and local communities have a fundamental obligation to ensure that every student has the opportunity to fulfill his or her greatest potential by entering school ready to learn. This obligation applies not only to poor students or to rich students, but to all students. The three purposes of preschool are to increase cognitive skills, school readiness, and social and emotional development in children ages 3-5 years old. All three areas contribute to the child’s aptitude for success and the quality of future human capital available to the state and the nation.

Georgia, Oklahoma, and Washington D.C. have made bold commitments to every child’s future by adopting Voluntary Pre-K. America needs to make a similar statement about all of its children. Every child matters and every child should have the opportunity to start from the same starting line, to come to school fundamentally ready to learn. It is not fair that the poor must start from behind the educational starting line because of the effects of poverty. Nor is it fair that disparity is created because high Socio-Economic Status (SES) students start the race farther ahead. Should we hold back the high SES students in order for the low and middle SES students to catch up? Will the achievement gap ever close completely? Maybe not, because the rich will always seek advantages for their children, just as poor parents seek advantage (or more precisely, equity) for their child when they sign up for a state or federally funded pre-k program, and as the middle class scramble to find high quality services they can afford. It only makes sense to move every citizen up to the highest level of readiness we can before the race starts in order to create a fairer system.

Image from: http://www.nccp.org/topics/earlycareandlearning.html

Comments

[Jennifer]

John,
I completely agree -- providing high-quality pre-k for all is one critically important means through which states can help minimize the achievement gap. The amount of progress that children can make in social/emotional, physical, cognitive, and language development in just a year of high-quality pre-k is tremendous. I have had students come in not knowing any letter names and end the year knowing all the letter names and the majority of sounds; I have had students cry to express frustration the beginning of the year and leave my classroom saying things like, "I feel frustrated because I can't play with that truck!"; and I have had students hold a crayon in a fist at the beginning of the year leave writing their name and "scribble writing" stories. The benefit of pre-k for all children, particularly children growing up in poverty, cannot be underestimated. Every child deserves the chance to begin kindergarten with the foundation of social and academic skills they need to succeed!
Jennifer

[Amy]

Thanks for this post, John (and thanks for your comments, Jennifer)! John summed it up best when he said that children are at different starting lines. This issue touches so many kids, and the impact of better schooling can change so much--helping that individual child succeed, closing the gap between that child and his classmates, building safer communities, preparing tomorrow's workforce...

And as we can tell from all the bloggers who wrote about poverty today (as a part of blog action day), too many children in this country don't have much, and public pre-k could be the turn-around factor they need and deserve.