New Debate Over the Importance and Feasibility of Universal Pre-K

GOOD magazine asked Dana Goldstein, a Schwartz fellow here at New America, to contribute a policy proposal to its “Campaign for Big Ideas.” In her piece, Goldstein argues for universal access to pre-kindergarten for every 3- and 4-year-old across the country.

She writes:

Guaranteeing universal access to preschool would benefit children, of course, but also their parents and the overall economy. First, extending the social contract to 3-and-4-year-olds would acknowledge that our public education system can no longer run on a pre-feminism model that assumes mothers of young children don’t need or want to work. Second, improving lifetime educational achievement by reaching all children as early in their brain development as possible would increase economic mobility. And third, universal preschool would create many new jobs for early education teachers and teachers’ aides.

On Birth to Thrive Online, Paul Nyhan writes about the debate Goldstein’s commentary has rekindled and asks how the president and federal government should work on early education. Matt Yglesias, Kevin Drum, and Tim Bartik have also reacted to the piece.

Read Goldstein’s GOOD magazine article here.