Pre-K: A Prescription for Progressives’ Problems?

Most early education watchers know that research shows lots of exciting benefits to investing in high-quality pre-K programs. In a TPM column published today, I explore whether pre-K might also be useful for progressives disillusioned with today’s political currents:

The dysfunction of our public institutions is particularly staggering in light of the size and gravity of our problems. For instance, while Congress struggles to decide over how much austerity to impose on our discretionary spending, the United States’ child poverty rate ranks among the highest of all developed nations. One in five American children is growing up in poverty today. And that number probably misrepresents the degree to which American children are struggling: nearly half of American students qualified for free or reduced lunch in 2011. Yet our tax revenues (as a share of GDP, in these data) remain amongst the developed world’s lowest.

High child poverty and little willingness to raise public revenue to address it? That would be reason enough to get cynical. But I think pessimist progressives are wrong.

Click here to read the full column.