The Shaky Science Behind Obama’s Universal Pre-K

[Valin]

Bloomberg :

Charles Murray

Feb 20, 2013

 

“Study after study shows that the earlier a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road,” said U.S. President Barack Obama in Feb. 14 speech in Decatur, Georgia. “Every dollar we invest in high-quality early education can save more than seven dollars later on -- boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, reducing violent crime.”

 

Obama wants to help our nation’s children flourish. So do I. So does everyone who is aware of the large number of children who are not flourishing. There are just two problems with his solution: The evidence used to support the positive long-term effects of early childhood education is tenuous, even for the most intensive interventions. And for the kind of intervention that can be implemented on a national scale, the evidence is zero.

 

Let me begin with the two studies in the early education literature that are so famous you may well have heard of them: the Perry Preschool Project and the Abecedarian Project. The Perry Preschool study took place a half-century ago, in the early 1960s. It treated 58 children ages 3 and 4 years old. The Abecedarian Project took place in the early 1970s. It treated 57 children, starting a few months after birth and continuing through age 5.

 

(Snip)