From Bryan Fischer, Idaho Values Alliance

As the education lobby ramps up for its annual push for universal pre-K in Idaho, it’s worth noting a Washington Policy Center white paper that indicates clearly that the educational effect of pre-K fades out over time - in most cases, by the end of third grade - and thus provides no long-lasting learning benefit to children.

Even full-day kindergarten, compared with half-day kindergarten, produces only short-term gains that erode virtually altogether in grades one through three.

In fact, social researchers are now recognizing that there are detrimental effects of too much institution-based care on the social and emotional development of very young children.

A study funded by the National Institutes of Health discovered that sixth graders who had spent the most time in child care centers in their formative years showed comparatively more aggressive and disobedient behavior in school settings than their home-centered peers.

Stanford and Berkeley researchers found that children enrolled for 15-30 hours a week in institutionalized day care showed retarded social and emotional development, demonstrating aggression and a lack of impulse control.

Plus, too many hours in an institutional setting which requires too much rigidity and routine will prompt kids to begin to shut down emotionally which slows their cognitive growth and turns off their natural curiosity.

A RAND Corporation study suggests that developing the non-academic readiness skills of children, especially minority children, offers the best chance of raising overall achievement. Such skills include a child’s disposition toward learning, self-control, positive interaction with others, and avoidance of negative behaviors. All skills, it ought be noted, best learned at home.

Thus minority children may actually suffer the most from too much institutionalized care, which may further reduce their chances for academic success.

Full-day pre-K, according to RAND, actually hinders the development of these non-academic readiness skills, and thus contributes to an eventual achievement gap in both math and reading. Children who act out, have poor impulse control and are defiant are simply not in a good position to learn.

Even RAND suggests that it would be better to direct public policy efforts toward enhancing parental skills rather than pouring more money into full-day kindergarten or universal pre-K programs.

It makes better sense to resist expensive pre-K programs, which will inevitably lead to higher taxes which in turn will only pull more Moms out of the home and into the workforce. It’s best for Idaho’s children to keep taxes as low as possible to make it possible for as many Moms as possible to be in-home caregivers for their own children.

Research shows that a secure attachment to loving parents is critical for young children to fully develop their academic potential. Pulling three- and four- year old children away from their parents is not the best way to foster that kind of attachment.

Parents make the best early educators for their children, and are the ones to whom we should look to train their children in the kind of self-control and relationship behaviors that will make it possible for them to maximize their educational experience when the time comes for them to go off to school.

As the concluding section of the WPC paper puts it, “research shows that providing institutional universal preschool and full-day kindergarten will not help most children, and may actually suppress their normal social and emotional development.”

Further, “research indicates that success in early childhood learning depends first and foremost on family support, especially from parents, and not on institutional programs. Any public early education policy that does not build on a supportive home life for children is unlikely to succeed.”

Bottom line: If we truly want to do what is best “for the children,” we will resist efforts to push universal pre-K on the public and instead prefer policies that strengthen the family, which as a child development psychologist says, is “the most effective and economical system for fostering and sustaining (a) child’s development.”

Washington Policy Center . Reviewing the Research on Universal Preschool and All-Day Kindergarten

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