Free Republic

President Obama’s new budget proposes paying for a $66 billion universal pre-kindergarten program by increasing the federal cigarette tax to $1.95 a pack. In theory, that raises about $78 billion over the next decade. Enough to fund the program—but not forever. The problem, as with all government programs funded under the kill-two-birds theory used to justify relying on smoking taxes as a revenue mechanism, is that cigarette taxes tend to discourage people from smoking. And with fewer people smoking, there’s less revenue to be raised from cigarette taxes. As The Washington Post’s Brad Plumer points out you can see the...

Since the recent State of the Union address, President Obama has been touting his proposal to offer free preschool to everybody. The White House cites studies that claim all manner of benefits to sticking young children into the zoo early on, including later “success.” And Obama claims one of his main motivations is to close the test score “achievement gap” between poor and rich kids.[snip] If you truly want to give your child an educational head start, turn off the TV and make him crack a couple of books every week.

In a recent Times column entitled “Occupy the Classroom,” Nicholas Kristof went to bat for the idea of “early childhood education.” He quotes the dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, as she forcefully states what we already know: there are significant performance gaps between rich and poor students; and those gaps widen in later years. Question is, what does our Education Establishment intend to do about these gaps? Nicholas Kristof is sure that we should do something. And that something, apparently, is to do more and more of what we are already doing but force it on younger and...

Mission: PreK Bethany Stotts, December 14, 2009 Last month a prestigious line-up of retired admirals and generals emphasized the importance of early childhood education to the America’s continued national security. “We know that early learning is a proven way to save scarce taxpayer dollars while laying the foundation for success of the next generation of Americans,” said Retired Major General James W. Comstock at the conference, which was opened by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “That is why the Early Learning Challenge Fund is so important,” continued the former. As part of the student loan bill, the Fund would provide...

Elusive PreK Successes by: Bethany Stotts, September 16, 2009 Some have offered up universal pre-kindgergarten as a solution for America’s educational woes, but CATO scholar Adam Schaeffer argues that the educational “benefits” of government-sponsored pre-k would be transitory at best. “The evidence suggests that the benefits of preschool are limited primarily to low-income children and are likely transitory,” argued Schaeffer in an August CATO Policy Analysis entitled, “The Poverty of Preschool Promises.” In the analysis, Schaeffer examined the three main studies which pre-k supporters cite as evidence that pre-kindergarten provides long-term academic benefits: “the High/Scope Perry Preschool Project, the Carolina...

Mayor Nutter said yesterday that five of the 11 library branches once scheduled to close permanently on Thursday are instead on track to be taken over by private foundations, wealthy individuals, companies, and community development corporations. ( ... ) "Libraries are much more than repositories for books. We know this," said Nutter, who ordered 11 of 54 branches closed as part of a larger plan to address a $1 billion five-year budget gap. "They are the absolute complete nexus of community life." Nutter made his remarks at a City Hall news conference where he was loudly heckled by dozens of...

Anyone who has taught young children knows how daunting it can be to keep the attention of a roomful of four-year-olds, much less teach them anything. Parents and taxpayers thus have reason to worry that the federal government, having spent hundreds of billions of dollars trying to improve the nation’s public schools—with little to show for it—is under growing pressure to spend billions more on a mission even more fraught with peril: helping states create and support high-quality preschools. With 38 states funding prekindergarten programs last year and more than 1 million children attending them—both all-time highs—congressional leaders in Washington...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton is ready to propose a new federal plan that would offer high-quality preschool to every 4-year-old in America. The Democratic presidential candidate says the universal Pre-K plan would cost about ten billion dollars. Speaking on NBC's "Today Show," she said evidence shows such preschool programs save money in the long run -- and that students have fewer behavioral problems and stay in school longer. The New York senator says she'd pay for universal preschool by closing tax loopholes and eliminating Bush administration programs she disagrees with. The proposal would give federal funds to states...

- State will pay for children of active-duty members to attend pre-kindergarten - Children of active-duty members of the military now qualify for state-funded pre-kindergarten programs. That provision, which also applies to pre-kindergarten children whose parents were hurt or killed during their military duty, was tucked into major legislation approved earlier this year that changes the state's school finance system. Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, said a retired U.S. Army general convinced senators of the need for the program when he came to testify on a later school-year start date. "The desire to do something for our military...

Texas Pre-Kindergarten Limited English Proficient (LEP) Pilot Program The following applications have been preliminarily selected to receive a grant for the Texas Pre-Kindergarten Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Pilot Program. Revised 4/12/06 Contacts: Carlos Garza(Funding) Discretionary Grants Phone: (512) 463-9269 carlos.garza@tea.state.tx.us Roberto Manzo (Program) Office Education Initiatives Phone: (512) 936-6060 roberto.manzo@tea.state.tx.us Program Description: The purpose of the Texas Pre-Kindergarten Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Pilot Program is: To implement multi-age programs serving 3-, 4-, and 5-year olds that assure that English language learning children receive appropriate activities to enter school prepared to succeed. The pilot program must provide many opportunities for the...

"The Massachusetts legislature is currently considering House Bill 1641, "An Act to Provide for a Comprehensive Health Education Program in the Public Schools." The bill would make lessons on such issues as sexuality, abortion, and birth control part of the core public school curriculum. Currently, local public school committees are not required to include sexuality education in their curricula. The bill would force every primary and secondary public school to adopt a standardized curriculum created by the Massachusetts Department of Education and backed by Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. This curriculum, available online, is called the Massachusetts Comprehensive Health Curriculum...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - A pre-kindergarten student brought a handgun to school, where it was seized by a fifth-grader and turned over to the principal, school district officials said Tuesday. The 5-year-old reportedly displayed the loaded weapon outside the Blanton Elementary School cafeteria where students were gathered before class. The fifth-grader recognized it was real and took it to the principal. Investigators were trying to determine how the child got the gun, Austin Independent School District spokeswoman Carmen Luevanos said. District police said they will pursue charges against the adult who allowed the student to bring the weapon to school....

Children in pre-K programs across the state are 19 times more likely to be expelled than students in kindergarten through high school, a shocking new study shows. About nine out of every 1,000 pre-K tots in New York state are tossed from their programs, according to Yale University researchers. By contrast, researchers found that just one in every 2,000 K-12 students in the state is expelled. The study, "Pre-kindergartners Left Behind," to be released today, found that pre-K students are three times as likely to be expelled as kids in other grades across the nation. Researchers did not collect data...

<p>BATON ROUGE - Louisiana's next governor will be asked by higher education officials to continue funding reforms that are improving and stimulating growth in colleges and universities rather than subject them to cuts to balance the budget.</p> <p>"We've got all the necessary building blocks" to solve Louisiana's persistent education problems, Commissioner of Higher Education Joseph Savoie said. "Our challenge now is to follow through and finish the job."</p>

Ruston senator savors first major triumph of pre-K program Wiley Hilburn / The Times Posted on October 14, 2002 Bill Jones was so excited he spit the Skoal into the wastebasket instead of his omni-present Diet Coke can. The Ruston senator (District 35) pounded on the desk in his modest Alabama Street office, before catching himself. "I'm sorry," Jones said, creaking back into his chair, "but this is what I went into politics for." Jones, 56, has a right to be excited. The at-risk, pre-K program (now called LA4) he authored - with more than a few hoots from the...

State adopts kindergarten tests By Lori Horvitz | Sentinel Staff Writer Posted June 9, 2002 Starting in August, new state tests will determine whether children are prepared to enter kindergarten. Do the children know their colors, letters and shapes? Are they able to pay attention to stories and follow directions and classroom rules? Can they interact with adults and peers? Assessing 5-year-olds for these and other basic skills in the public schools is nothing new. However, for years counties used different tools to measure what children could do when they started school. Some school districts used informal checklists while others...

'Godsend' from county saves pre-k in Seminole By Leslie Postal | Sentinel Staff Writer Posted May 31, 2002 SANFORD -- The Seminole County school district will not slash its pre-kindergarten program next school year, thanks to a $500,000 "godsend" from county commissioners. Without the donation from the Seminole County Commission made this week, enrollment in the program would have been slashed because of new state rules. The subsidized pre-k program aims to help 4-year-olds from low-income families get ready for school. New state rules require both parents to work for their child to be eligible. The rule change meant enrollment...

School districts try to save pre-K By Lori Horvitz | Sentinel Staff Writer Posted May 22, 2002 Three Central Florida counties have joined a number of Florida districts sidestepping state policy by paying to keep pre-kindergarten classes in the public schools rather than steering poor children to privately owned day care. The brewing battle between the districts and the state centers on competing needs: Better education or making it easier for welfare recipients to find and keep jobs. Schools want to put more low-income children into their preschool classes -- taught by certified teachers -- to prepare them for kindergarten...