Pre-School Found Wanting : Too Much Control

This is one of many article that lays out the problems of pre-school education by government control. The conclusions are clear though in this study, government intrusion in the family structure is the problem as witness the destruction of the black family as a unit. As this study indicates, pre-school for at-risk children are no better off or worse off by over controlling of the child's environment is lost on the ideology of experts in Washington that believe more control is the best way to lay a sound foundation for future success.

And advocating for more school choice to help at-risk children as one of the solutions fits well given the success of other school choice programs around the country. Less government means more success.

Another Pre-K Study Shows Negative Impact Upon Children
By Carole Haynes

The latest evidence that government pre-K has negative effects upon children is found in the recently published study by Vanderbilt University on the scaled up program in Tennessee. The full-day pre-kindergarten program is for at-risk students whose families qualify for free or reduced lunches. The Tennessee program is nearly identical to those implemented in other states, meeting the majority of benchmarks outlined by the National Institute for Early Education Research.

The study included two groups — participants and non-participants in the pre-K program — with each beginning at the same level of academic ability. By the end of the year, the participants were significantly ahead of those who did not participate, with higher scores in literacy, language and mathematics. By the end of the first grade, the two groups were equal in their achievement scores. By the end of the third grade, the performance of the participants was lower than that of the non-participants, both academically and socially. The results of the Vanderbilt study align almost perfectly with those of the Head Start Impact Study.

Pre-K advocates claim that early intervention will help solve the criminal problems of society. Yet the 1960s HighScope Preschool Curriculum Comparison Study (PCCA) for low-income children shows that, by age 23, participants showed serious overall development, with 34 percent having been arrested for a felony offense. Play-based kindergartens, and now even preschools, have been replaced largely by formal academic drilling and testing.

Researchers, who have studied the effects of the daily drilling of literacy and math skills to make young children develop faster, have found both creativity and curiosity to be negatively affected. Since 1990, the Torrance scores for creative ability have been falling for Americans with the decline being most serious for younger children in K-6.

The stifling of creativity and curiosity in young children makes teaching them advanced math and science later much more difficult. This has an impact upon their careers and upon our nation’s supply of skilled talent to grow our national economy. Children thrive best when they are reared by biological parents. Yet the federal government’s changes in Aid to Families with Dependent Children has led to the destruction of black marriages, resulting in a high rate of illegitimacy with single parent families and increased poverty.

The Vanderbilt study notes that increasing numbers of children are living in poverty, which is having immediate and long lasting consequences for them. It is unwise to place fragile at-risk children in government pre-K programs that can further impact them negatively.

A better solution is to end government policies that are destructive to family relationships and financial well-being. As a nation, we must support healthy in-tact families and in-home early care. If children must be cared for outside of the home, then school choice should be extended to include early care.