He could make up nicely with this as an initiative
For months, advocates of early childhood education have been buzzing that Gov. Rod Blagojevich plans to announce a bold initiative to vastly expand public schooling for preschoolers–provided he finds the funding for it.
It’s expensive and it’s worth it. And it hits that median voter perfectly. I’d love to see the polling data on it. While that isn’t the reason I support such a plan, it’s got to be good enough to make The Blagorgeous blush.
The Trib’s editorial sites the basic idea pretty well, but to give you some idea of how significant a decent early childhood education plan can be…
Take a look at the dummy version of the Minneapolis Fed work the Trib mentions–I’ve seen Grunewald present on this.
The challenge is that the industry as currently funded and organized is largely maintained by poorly trained and poorly paid staff who have little understanding of child development. For those with a decent income, one parent can stay home or they can afford a Center that has strong staff and faculty. For those who aren’t well paid, their kids may end up in a good center, but are just as likely to end up in a mediocre center.
The insidious element of this system is that it reinforces class structures that inhibit upward mobility at the very beginning of a child’s life when that child is incapable of making her own informed choices.
A serious effort towards a universal system that provides quality care to all children, would go along way to making the Governor seem palatable to many in the Center and on the Left.
Hence, I have little hope for it coming to be.