Adam Schaeffer talks about universal preschool on the Cato Daily Podcast. A few of his main points:
- It’s hard to scale up successful preschool programs. If a program succeeds with 150 kids, that doesn’t mean you can replicate it across your state and get the same results.
- Districts see preschool as a growth opportunity. Ninety percent of K–12 students attend public schools, but there’s more competition at the preschool and college levels.
- Talking about preschool shifts the focus away from criticisms of the K–12 system.
- Tuition tax credits would open up more preschool choices for low-income families without growing the K–12 monopoly.
I especially like the third point. I can imagine districts complaining, once they offer preschool, that they can’t educate the three- through 18-year-olds well, because they don’t have custody of the kids from birth.
Listen to the whole thing!
