Universal Preschool: How It Would Impact Your Family?and the ...

In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama proposed making high-quality preschool available to all children in the United States.

?Every dollar we invest in high-quality early education can save more than seven dollars later on?by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime,? he said.

Since then, the pundits have been scrutinizing whether such education for youngsters actually has substantial benefits.

In fact, a number of studies show that there are long-lasting benefits. But, as it goes when studying something as intangible as the long-term effects of preschool, other studies seem to indicate that the advantages of a preschool education fade by third grade.

While the proposal is still in the early stages of being sketched out?the administration hasn?t yet detailed how it plans to pay for the program, though it could do so in Obama?s budget, expected in March?we dive into the numbers to see whether this investment by society is a waste of money or boon to us all.

In the State of the Union, Obama said, ?Tonight, I propose working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every child in America,? but his proposal?is actually more limited. It aims to provide federal matching dollars to states to provide public preschool to all four-year-olds from families with incomes at or below 200% of the poverty limit, which for a family of four would be $47,100. States who expand public pre-K slots to middle-class families would be eligible for more funding, and those families would pay tuition rates based on a sliding scale.?

RELATED: Obama?s State of the Union Address: What You Need to Know

As Sara Watson, director of Ready Nation, a group of business leaders that supports early childhood policies, said, his plan targets ?families who are the working poor?ones who are working but at minimum-wage jobs. They make too much to qualify for Head Start??a federal program that offers education, health, nutrition and parent involvement services to support low-income children and their families??but not enough to pay for preschool.?

The president?s proposal could also have an effect on the quality of preschool education. His plan will take some cues from an Alabama program that requires preschools to?employ teachers with bachelor?s degrees in early childhood education or child development, to have class sizes of less than 20 children, and to follow a state-approved curriculum.

Additionally, although much of the attention has been on his preschool proposal, Obama actually intends to address a whole spectrum of issues from birth through kindergarten entry. He also plans to:

• Invest in a new ?Early Head Start-Child Care partnership? that would expand and improve early learning programs for infants and toddlers.
• Expand voluntary home-visiting services that allow nurses, social workers and other professionals to connect families to services aimed at improving a child?s health, development and ability to learn.?

Watson says of home visiting,??highly trained professionals work with expectant and new parents to teach them to be great nurturers of their children. They learn how to soothe them, nurture them, teach them and read to them from a very early age. Those seemingly simple parenting actions make a big difference in children being able to learn.?

Source: http://www.learnvest.com/2013/03/universal-preschool-how-it-would-impact-your-family-and-the-economy/

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