- Friedrich Froebel started Kindergarten in Germany for three to five year olds. When America adopted Kindergarten, the first two years disappeared, leaving us with our current program for five- and six-year-olds. The three- and four-year-olds were ignored until recent years when a combination of occurrences sparked an interest in prekindergarten movement. Educators and psychologists realized curious children embraced learning at younger ages results from long term studies. After this interest ignited researchers began studying effects of prekindergarten. Effects tended to be insignificant, but in the decade, longitudinal studies emerged reporting astonishing social and benefits of low-income children who attended a preschool program compared with children living in identical demographics that did not attend preschool.
- Underprivileged children consistently perform below average both in school and in life. Preschool, as found in research, has the ability to curb that trend in a positive direction. Some parents, working to make ends meet, struggle to afford high quality preschool programs that can help their children succeed in life. The first type of parents prefer children home where parents and family nurture and support them until they head to kindergarten. Other parents may not support their children, and not even care if they attend preschool. On the opposite end of the spectrum, some elite preschools in Manhattan cost around $18,000 per year. These schools provide the upper-class with skills needed to succeed in life, while other children remain hungry and struggle through life daily. Life’s daily struggles prevents them from reaching there social, developmental, cognitive and intellectual potential. Middle class children, often with working parents, also cannot attend elite preschools. America, a country founded on principles of social mobility and equal opportunities, fails at facilitating these principles for all children. The question arises: Should the federal government fund quality preschool for all American children?
- Irrefutable evidence produced by countless researchers, education professionals, and psychology professors proves that high quality preschool will improve the quality of life for underprivileged children. This will give the underprivileged children more equal opportunities. Our government; however, also prides itself in being a strong democratic republic, and funding preschool for everyone borders socialism.
- We must remember that we do not choose the social situation we are born into. Some are lucky, and some are not, but I believe that the future of America and the potential of America should not be left up to luck. As I recall a team is defined by two or more people working together to reach a common goal. America; therefore, is a team. Teams are only as strong as their weakest members, and we must support our weakest members before we set them up for failure.
- Commonly, foreigners stereotype Americans as being rude and self serving. If you fit this stereotype, the previous argument may not have convinced you that preschool is worth funding for all four-year-olds, after all, an ideal preschool program funded in Chicago costs taxpayers $18,000 per year per child. Recent studies forced researchers to draw conclusions that high quality preschool, although expensive to start up, benefits the public more than it benefits the individual. This seemingly impossible statement has been proved in multiple cases, most notably the Perry Preschool Study. When provided with an environment that fosters success, students in the preschool did just that, they succeeded. The study included a two groups, one that attended preschool and one that did not. Observations were taken at yearly from ages 3-11, at ages 14, 15, 19, 27, and finally at 40. Continuously throughout the study, the group that attended preschool performed better, but the most drastic achievement gap between preschool attendees and the non-preschool attendees was in their later years, at age 40. The attendees had a lower crime rate, had higher paying jobs, had less welfare dependancy. This benefits taxpayers because although funding preschool burdens the taxpayer initially, the return in 15 to 20 years, if consistent with the study, will be a little over seven dollars to every dollar invested. Because the benefits to the public outweigh the benefits to the individual it should be publicly funded. Public goods, such as school, must be funded in order for American’s to feel equality, solidarity and feel the economic benefits.
- Economic benefits pay off because less people depend on social welfare programs including jails, welfare, and other social programs that react to societal problems instead of preventing the problems. If we reached the roots of the problems we would develop into a more productive society. This will, inevitably, decrease jobs for peoples who serve the current welfare program, but with more innovative, contributing Americans, more jobs will be created. More teachers, for example will be needed. For a society to be optimally functional, it must take care of its children so it does not have to take care of adults.
- Currently, head start programs are in place. Positive results that would make it worth funding don’t seem apparent. That is because the head start programs aren’t the quality programs necessary to change a person’s life. Quality programs include meals, parental visits, basic healthcare, and a three to eight student to teacher ratio. Head Start programs need more funding to benefit all, or less funding to benefit a smaller, but worthy group. Benefits do not show because money isn’t invested in making the programs quality.
- Funding this preschool still seems overwhelming, but America needs to stop focusing on immediate solutions and work on lasting solutions. They need to allocate the funds for preschool to keep up the quality. For example, less federal money should be allocated to paying teachers because after that money runs out, no money will be left to fund preschool. The money needs to be invested in establishing a strong program.
- Based on the substantial evidence that preschool will benefit society, I have concluded that preschool is the most worthy cause for America to fund because it will help individuals as well as our entire country. This only can be done if the preschool program is the same quality as those that were in the study and if America invests billions of dollars in it. Everything pays off in the end, and we owe it to ourselves and our country to patiently wait for the pay-off.
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