While the federal government already spends as least $25 billion on the existing 69 preschool and child care programs, the Obama administration is calling for #70—proposing $9.3 billion for a new “Early Learning Challenge Grant”. As we wrote last year, the Early Learning Challenge Grant fund would push states to spend more on preschool programs, when evidence is mounting that preschool programs aren’t delivering the benefits their proponents promise.
Given the recent national evaluation showing that the nation’s 45 year and $167 billion experiment with Head Start has been a failure, shouldn’t the Obama administration be living up to their programs of “funding what works” by reforming rather than expanding federal spending on preschool?
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