In light of the fact that our Republican-led Congress just voted to cut Head Start funding again, you might be interested in this article in today’s New York Times which explains that pre-school education not only helps when children are young, but has benefits even 40 years later. The information is from an extraordinary longitudinal study started in the 1960s. The same group of high-risk inner city children have been followed the entire time.
Based on past experience, it was a near certainty that most of these kids would fail in school. During the previous decade, not a single class in the Perry elementary school had ever scored above the 10th percentile on national achievement tests, while across town, in the school that served the children of well-off professionals, no class had ever scored below the 90th percentile….
As they progressed through school, the Perry children were less likely to be assigned to a special education class for the mentally retarded. Their attitude toward school was also better, and their parents were more enthusiastic about their youngsters’ schooling. Their high-school grade point average was higher. By age 19, two-thirds had graduated from high school, compared with 45 percent of those who didn’t attend preschool.
Most remarkably, the impact of those preschool years still persists. By almost any measure we might care about — education, income, crime, family stability — the contrast with those who didn’t attend Perry is striking. When they were 27, the preschool group scored higher on tests of literacy. Now they are in their 40’s, many with children and even grandchildren of their own. Nearly twice as many have earned college degrees (one has a Ph.D.). More of them have jobs: 76 percent versus 62 percent. They are more likely to own their home, own a car and have a savings account. They are less likely to have been on welfare. They earn considerably more — $20,800 versus $15,300 — and that difference pushes them well above the poverty line.
We fail the impoverished children of this country when we won’t provide them with even minimal help. We do this because a large portion of this country hates them and hates their parents, blaming them for their own circumstances. While it’s true that people need to take responsibility for their own lives and their progress, children who are neglected and malnourished can’t possibly perform up to potential. The rest of us then pay for it throughout their lives, in higher crime rates and lost human potential. This is why childhood education and feeding children are liberal values
We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom