Dive Brief:
- More than one in three children in the U.S. enter kindergarten with no previous preschool experience, a higher percentage than most other prosperous nations, and the American Institutes for Research conducted a study investigating the policies in those countries that may make universal access easier to attain.
- Analysts found that making preschool education a legal right for children helps in the push to offer widespread pre-K access, as it makes such programs immune from economic strife or the whims of politicians with differing ideologies. Most countries with greater access also provided significant public financial support.
- The study also indicated that countries with high preschool rates establish early connections with young children and families, which makes preschool integration easier, and they also build strong ties in underserved communities and tout preschool participation as a universal right.
Dive Insight:
Some education experts believe that universal early childhood education could be an easier sell than a low-income program for states that are cash-strapped and wary of heavily investing in preschool. National Governors Association Legislation Director for Education & Workforce Committee Stephen Parker said in a March education panel sponsored by The Atlantic that one of the reasons New York City’s pre-K system had been so successful was that it was promoted as a system for all, as opposed to a program targeting low-income families, which could be more politically controversial.
As early childhood education advocates pressure lawmakers to support more robust pre-K programs, they can offer indications that early childhood education is not only a benefit for students as they enter elementary education, but also serves as a robust initial investment on a future ROI for the country’s economy. University of Chicago economics professor and Center for the Economics of Human Development Director James Heckman found that early childhood education delivers in terms of economic benefits later in a student’s life, which could be an easier sell to financially stringent legislators.
