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Oklahoma's universal preschool program is making a difference

Categories: Toddlers, Preschoolers, Education

Ten years ago, Oklahoma instituted a state-funded preschool program for four-year-olds. The standards for the program are high: the head teacher in every classroom must have a bachelor's degree, there can be no more than twenty students in a class, and there must be one teacher for every ten students. Today, nearly 70 percent of four-year-olds in Oklahoma are enrolled in public preschool, the most of any state in the US, and if Governor Brad Henry has his way, the program will soon include three-year-olds as well. According to an article in Wednesday's New York Times, "This combination of quality and scale makes the Oklahoma program one of the most serious attempts to deal with economic inequality anywhere in the country."

Supporters of universal preschool cite studies that show that students with only one year of preschool score 52 percent better on letter recognition tests than their peers who start school in kindergarten, and that low-income children who go to preschool are more likely to stay in school and less likely to be arrested. But opponents worry that the move to expand public schooling to include younger children marks a shift away from family and toward what they call a "nanny state." Opponents also express concern that starting children on the academic treadmill at four--or three--denies them their childhood.

What do you think? Is universal preschool the bridge between rich and poor? Or is it one more way we are compelling our children to grow up before they are ready?

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