duncan released a report documenting the inequalities of the schools, begin setting children back as early as 3 and 4 years old. our next guest says that it s great that leadership is ready to invest in early education but we have to focus on how we spend those funds and teach parents what they can do, too. in the guest spot today is milton chen who wrote education nation about this topic and a senior fellow at the george lucas foundation supporting innovative teachers and processes. milton, thank you for being with us. thank you. glad to be here. let s first stipulate, we don t have all of the details of what this pre-k proposal from the president would look like. but from the research i m seeing, i mean, the problem not just preschool for everyone. it s quality preschool for young children. is it your opinion that this proposal gets at that goal of a quality education?
bureaucracy of education, as well. milton, do you think it s an end goal maybe just legislateively to make pre-k mandatory the way that primary and secondary education are fairly mandatory in this country? well, i always get a little nervous talking about mandatory education. because students vote with their feet all the time. don t they? certainly high school years. we cannot force students to go to school. right. i think i would rather have incentives for parents to make sure that the children are involved with a quality preschool experience. there s incentives for parents. i was talking earlier about the importance of parent education to practice high quality parenting at home. kids spend more time at home than a school or a preschool so the importance of family time and how that can support what goes on in school and preschool becoming very important. milton chen, thank you very much. thank you. when truth isn t stranger