Mona Charen
Subsidized day care and universal pre-K are goals that sound so wholesome only a ghoul could oppose them. Especially in an era when Democrats and Republicans have achieved consensus that money grows on trees, who could possibly object to spending a few hundred billion or so, as Biden has proposed with his American Families Plan, to ensure that kids get the best start in life?
My hand is up. Here is a partial list of reasons:
1. It’s not what parents prefer.
Numerous surveys have shown that most parents prefer arrangements other than commercial, center-based care for their young children. An American Compass survey showed that among poor, working-class and middle-class parents, the most common preference was for one parent to work and the other to care for children under 5. Only among upper-class families did the largest percentage choose to have both parents working.
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Subsidized day care and universal pre-K are goals that sound so wholesome only a ghoul could oppose them. Especially in an era when Democrats and Republicans have achieved consensus that money grows on trees, who could possibly object to spending a few hundred billion or so, as Biden has proposed with his American Families Plan, to ensure that kids get the best start in life?
My hand is up. Here is a partial list of reasons:
Columnists
1. It’s not what parents prefer.
Numerous surveys have shown that most parents prefer arrangements other than commercial, center-based care for their young children. An American Compass survey showed that among poor, working-class and middle-class parents, the most common preference was for one parent to work and the other to care for children under 5. Only among upper-class families did the largest percentage choose to have both parents working.
john: i accept it was good research, but the perry preschool, teachers went home with the kids once a week, spent an hour and a half with the mom and the child. this is expensive and intensive. they got results. let s be careful. it s no more expensive in a per capita basis today than elementary school students in most states around the country. john: $10,000 a student. 9-10,000 across states. varies. connecticut spends a lot, you know, and other states spend less. fact is it s not higher. this is the point i think you really are missing, and i completely with you. there s a lot of waste in government programs. what is necessary are what are benefits and compare it to the cost. it s not a matter of cost. look, i bought a new car. it cost thousands of dollars. if i looked at the cost, what a waste of money. i just have a car.
government programs that are investments like, you know, for example, the interstate highway system or, for example, the transcontinental railroad linking the country together. there s investments that pay off. so i completely am with you when you say, oh, you know, there s a lot of goverent waste, but i would say if people look at the evidence for other programs the way that we ve looked for evidence on p this program, then we d have we d go a long way towards meeting some of your criticism, but i think this program that we re talking about, these classes of programs will probably survive it. john: okay. this program, you have studied the perry preschool and concluded investment, high quality investment to preschool brings a return to 7 to 1, and every contribute 7 to 1 statistic now including our president. every dollar we invest in high quality early education can save more than $7 later on.