Obama Seeking Additional $75 Billion in Preschool Spending
by ELIZABETH HARRINGTON October 29, 2013


President Barack Obama is pushing his $75 billion "preschool for all" initiative on top of the $20 billion a year the federal government spends on early education programs.

The Department of Education announced on Oct. 18 that 16 states and the District of Columbia are competing for $280 million in grants for the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge, which aims to improve education for children from "birth through age 5."

Spending on Early Learning Challenge grants has totaled nearly $1 billion in the past three years. The program spent $497.3 million in 2011, and $132.9 million in 2012.

The Early Learning Challenge seeks to "increase the number and percentage of low-income and disadvantaged children in each age group of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers who are enrolled in high-quality early learning programs."

The grants will range from $37.5 million to $75 million, and winning states will be announced in December.

The program is aligned with Obama's Early Learning initiative that wants to put every 4-year-old in preschool, for which he proposed spending $75 billion in his fiscal year 2014 budget.

"The goal is to enable every American 4-year-old to attend a quality preschool program-one characterized by well-organized learning experiences, guided exploration, art, and storytelling, led by a skilled teacher," a description of the president's initiative states. "In addition, the Department of Education will work with the Department of Health and Human Services to significantly expand and improve services to younger children."

Lindsey Burke, a senior education analyst at the Heritage Foundation, said it is "incredibly misguided" to propose additional funding for preschool, when the federal government already spends $20 billion a year.

"Not only do we have all of this new spending coming through these Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grants, but we also have 45 early education and childcare programs at the federal level, which, by the way, spend $20 billion annually," Burke said. "So there's already pretty significant federal intervention and spending on early education."

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For parents, especially working single parents who's time is a real premium, and children who have to know more and contend with even more crowded K thru 12 schools until we see enough spent to provide universal preschool at least as an option I do not have a problem with this.

I firmly believe it is in the advantage of the family and society for all children to have a preschool option.

As a parent I believed in it so strongly that I sacrificed a lot to provide it for all my kids. And many that were not my kids. As a retiree on a modest income I still tithe to a quality preschool program so kids have this significant head-start.

And I absolutely do not see it as a "poverty" issue because some of the most affluent children I have seen need preschool for socialization and vocabulary development especially. The number of really smart people that do not have a clue about interacting with a developing mind/personality never failed to frustrate me. Preschool is not only and enrichment program but a great safety net for our most vunerable and precious resource.