December 2, 2005
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I get nervous with all the hype over
preschool.
could help make Universal Preschool a reality. The fact that advocates are
talking about compulsory preschool for 4-year olds as if it would solve social
ills and correct educational deficits, is disturbing.
Here in
the education ministry too harbours similar ambitions but infrastructure and
funding at this moment are major obstacles in the way. I’m glad for that. Some zealous
educators point to Head Start as evidence that preschool works. Wendy
McElroy sounds the alarm in an article in Foxnews titled, Will Universal
Preschool Give All Kids a Head Start? and points to new studies that show
otherwise:
[T]he DC-think tank Cato Institute observes, "The most comprehensive
synthesis of Head Start impact studies to date was published in 1985 by the
Department of Health and Human Services. It showed that by the time children
enter the second grade, any cognitive, social, and emotional gains by Head
Start children have vanished ... The net gain to children and taxpayers is zero."
This is
the great danger: the presumption that government can raise children better
than parents. If universal preschool is voluntary, then it may merely create
another massive and ultra-expensive bureaucracy that accomplishes little.
If it is
compulsory, then universal preschool will extend the government's usurpation of
parenthood so that all 3- and 4-year-olds are under state supervision.I understand there is a place for preschool,
but I certainly don’t see why the state should usurp the role of parents and
take over their kids at such an early age or at any age. Compulsory preschool! This then is the
bigger issue and it is utterly appaling to me. Is not the damage done to families by state-sponsored
schooling already self-evident?
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