Jamie Gass

Should the federal government provide free, universal child care?

/0 Comments/in , /by Jamie Gass
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

This op-ed appeared in The Boston Globe.

NO – Jamie Gass, Director of education research and policy at Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based think tank; Newton resident

The states must “be considered as essential, component parts of the Union,” founding father Alexander Hamilton declared in 1788, “and therefore the idea of sacrificing the former to the latter is wholly inadmissible.”

Free, universal child care provided by the federal government would be contrary to the spirit of the Founders’ view of K-12 education as the constitutional domain of state and local governments. Nevertheless, in the 55 years since President Lyndon Johnson established the federal Head Start program, some policymakers have advocated for nationalizing early childhood education, in part as a way to help fight poverty.

A policy brief I helped co-author in May reveals that the federal government today provides approximately 69 preschool and early childhood education subsidies across 10 federal agencies, costing US taxpayers around $25 billion annually. The largest and most expensive of these programs is Head Start, which cost more than $10 billion in fiscal 2020, or $240 billion since 1965.

What are the results?

According to the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the “nation’s report card,” national fourth-grade reading scores were a mere three points higher than in 1992.

In 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services, which administers Head Start, released an updated rigorous study that tracked 5,000 3- and 4-year-old children through the end of third grade. It found that Head Start had little or no sustained impact on the cognitive development of the study’s participants.cq The findings show that the model for any federally driven early childhood education has failed spectacularly at fulfilling its own promises.

As the movie version of the popular Broadway musical “Hamilton” sweeps the nation, let’s recommit ourselves to the framers’ wisdom about education and federalism.

This could be accomplished by sunsetting Head Start and dozens of other federal early childhood education programs over the next decade. In the interim, they should be turned into block grants that would allow states to make preschool dollars portable to follow eligible children to the private provider of their choice. Finally, states could authorize more early-grade charter public schools to better serve the urban kids who are most in need of academic-quality early childhood education.

Get Updates on Our Education Research

Related Content:

Teachers strikes hurt the students

At a time when the country’s basic commitment to the rule of law is being questioned, Newton educators are teaching their students that breaking the law and thumbing one’s nose at a judge’s order are OK — if it is in your self-interest.

Admissions lotteries would harm vocational-technical schools

Expanding the number of seats available in vocational-technical high schools is a good investment for Massachusetts. But it’s critical they are expanded in a way that promotes equity without endangering the academic and occupational excellence that continues to drive burgeoning demand for these schools.

Remove roadblocks for charter schools

Worcester, Brockton, Fall River, New Bedford, and other Gateway Cities in Massachusetts have large waiting lists for charter schools plus room to expand under state caps. What's needed are ways to curb obstructionist behavior that is blocking that expansion.

Teachers union wants ed reform money — but not accountability

MTA campaign against graduation test takes their stand to 'farcical…

Civics education is crucial to engaged citizenship

0 Comments
/
The Founding Fathers believed the main role of public education was not workforce development, but to create citizens prepared for informed participation in American democracy. Without this, they feared the nation might dissolve. Never have the founders looked more prescient.

Time for Receivership in Boston

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) recently launched its second review of the Boston Public Schools (BPS) in three years. The move has some up in arms because state law requires that officials conduct a review no more than a year before approving state receivership. For BPS, receivership is long overdue. After more than 15 years of consistent and rapid decline, the district has shown no ability—and limited will—to stem the tide

Civics Education is More Important than Ever

Rather than seeking to raise a generation of political activists and community organizers, civics programs should instill an informed love of our country based on the nation’s founding, how our system of government works, and what Americans have achieved – together with our many failings – since the nation was created.

Maine Tries to Ignore a Clear Supreme Court Ruling on Education

As the U.S. Supreme Court takes up Carson v. Makin, the facts are clear. Maine has chosen to subsidize private education. As such, it cannot disqualify all religious schools from receiving public dollars under its school choice program.

Time for State Action on Troubled Boston Schools

Given the failures of both appointed and elected school boards, perhaps the time has come to have the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education appoint the members of the Boston School Committee. Patience might be warranted if the Boston Public Schools were improving. But we have waited for decades, and they are only getting worse. Holding adults in the system accountable was a cornerstone of the Education Reform Act. If not now, when?

A truly progressive student loan policy

0 Comments
/
This op-ed originally appeared in the Boston Globe. It was written…