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No. 333

February 9, 1999

UNIVERSAL PRESCHOOL IS NO GOLDEN TICKET

Why Government Should Not Enter the Preschool Business

by Darcy Ann Olsen

Executive Summary

Across the country legislators are deciding whether to

require public school districts to provide no-fee

prekindergarten classes for all three- and four-year-olds.

Georgia and New York have implemented universal preschool

programs for four-year-olds, and other states have taken

steps in that direction.  Those programs are voluntary so

far, but there have been calls for mandatory participation.

Most advocates of public preschool argue that early

schooling of low-income children is an investment that pays

off in the long term by reducing the number of children who

will perform poorly in school, become teenage parents, com-

mit criminal acts, or depend on welfare.  Other advocates

of public preschool see it as a way to subsidize child

care.

Experience provides little reason to believe universal

preschool would significantly benefit children, regardless

of family income.  For nearly 40 years, local, state, and

federal governments and diverse private sources have funded

early intervention programs for low-income children, and

benefits to the children have been few and fleeting.  There

is also evidence that middle-class children gain little, if

anything, from preschool.  Benefits to children in public

preschools are unlikely to be greater or more enduring.

Public preschool for younger children is irresponsi-

ble, given the failure of the public school system to edu-

cate the children currently enrolled.  The desire to "do

something" for young children should be tempered by the

facts, and proposals for universal preschool should be

rejected.

Darcy Ann Olsen is an entitlements policy analyst at the

Cato Institute.