Posted 9:22 AM by Susan Darst Williams

OBAMA, OPS BOTH WANT MORE GOVERNMENT PRESCHOOL,
BUT THE RECORD SHOWS IT'S ANOTHER COLOSSAL MISTAKE

Here's a good one from the San Francisco Chronicle detailing how "universal preschool," which is taxpayer-supplied "free" preschool for all, and which Presidential candidate Barack Obama is pushing, actually pulls kids down:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/17/EDQC13ISN1.DTL&type=education

Even though the Omaha Public Schools and its chief benefactor, Susan Buffett, may have the best of intentions with their early childhood ed plans, it is hoped that a hard look is given to these stats before we go any further down this rabbit trail. Here, as everywhere, no doubt the Buffett donations will get things started, but after that, the foundation's funding will be withdrawn and Nebraska taxpayers will be left trying to pay for this colossal waste of money.

Head Start, overall, is a waste of time, the follow-up studies have shown. Even the liberal Brookings Institution has chimed in, noting that any gains by children who attended the "free" government preschool vanish by second or third grade, compared to kids of the same demographic background who had no out-of-home preschool at all.

This report points out that the three states most famous for universal preschool -- Georgia, Oklahoma and Tennessee -- all have reported test scores that show no improvement after years of the service, or that test scores have actually gone down.

That's incredible, considering the untold billions that the nation would be investing in widespread government preschool should Obama win the White House.

Labels: Barack Obama, Omaha Public Schools, universal preschool