Shoutout for Early Education in Presidential Debate

Friday’s Presidential debate was supposed to focus on foreign policy, so we weren’t expecting to hear much discussion of early education issues. But during a section in which moderator Jim Lehrer asked the candidates about how the current financial crisis will impact their proposed policy agendas, Democratic candidate Barack Obama gave a shout-out to early education as the kind of needed investment that produces long-term returns that justify increasing investments even in tight economic times:

LEHRER: Would you go for that [a freeze on domestic spending proposed by McCain]?

OBAMA: The problem with a spending freeze is you’re using a hatchet where you need a scalpel. There are some programs that are very important that are under funded. I want to increase early childhood education and the notion that we should freeze that when there may be, for example, this Medicare subsidy doesn’t make sense.