President Obama recently unveiled his plan for expanding early education, which includes expanding federal funding for public preschool and boosting Head Start funding. According to the President, government-funded preschool is the way for students to achieve academic success. Sadly, Obama’s claims are founded on weak evidence. Government-funded preschool programs show …
As the Obama Administration attempts to move toward universal, taxpayer-funded preschool, policymakers should examine the experiences of states that have offered such programs for more than a decade. Both Georgia and Oklahoma have done so, but there is little evidence that taxpayers and children are benefiting. Universal Preschool in Georgia. …
A rigorous and large-scale experimental evaluation, conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), finds that the federal Head Start program has essentially no lasting cognitive or behavioral benefits. The results clearly call into question the federal government’s $8 billion per year commitment to the program. Far from …
President Barack Obama laid out an ambitious agenda last night. Here are some highlights of our experts’ analysis of his claims, his plans, and his promises. Responding to Newtown All Americans, no matter what our backgrounds or political perspectives, abhor the death of innocent human beings. We were shocked by …
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) just released its latest batch of Head Start data, revealing, once again, that its students are receiving far less than a “head start.” The study, which was finally released the weekend before Christmas after more than a year’s delay, examines the third-grade …
On Tuesday, President Obama criticized Representative Paul Ryan’s (R–WI) budget proposal as making “draconian cuts” to federal spending programs. In particular, the President said, “If this budget becomes law and the cuts were applied evenly, starting in 2014, over 200,000 children would lose their chance to get an early education …
In a recent issue of Time, Joe Klein acknowledges the ignored reality that national-scale programs based on effective pilot programs frequently do not yield the same successful results. His case in point is Head Start—a “Great Society” pre-school program intended to provide a boost to disadvantaged children before they enter …
The alphabet is expensive. The Obama administration’s FY 2011 budget includes $9.3 billion in new spending on an Early Learning Challenge Fund, a new federal preschool program contained within the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA). The SAFRA, a higher education bill, has passed the House and is awaiting …
While the federal government already spends as least $25 billion on the existing 69 preschool and child care programs, the Obama administration is calling for #70—proposing $9.3 billion for a new “Early Learning Challenge Grant”. As we wrote last year, the Early Learning Challenge Grant fund would push states to …
