A call to level the playing field by way of early education

Today's review: the state of early education in Texas. No really. I know I don't usually post about such things in the "real world," but I'm a rule breaker if nothing else. Well, that's not true either... but moving on!

So, early education in Texas: what's my stake in this? I'm not a parent, a teacher, a pre-K student, an administrator, or a lobbyist. Hell, I've been known to say I don't even like kids (which is changing, I'll admit). However, I did get a good education (that started with pre-K) myself. A really good one (thanks mom and dad...). Good enough to be able to recognize that 1) The way our country works, good schooling gives you a massive leg up for doing well in life. Not a guarantee, but an advantage. 2) Kind of on the other side of that, education, poverty, and crime are so inextricably interconnected that to make changes in one area will affect the others. Not that a good education makes you a rich or a law abiding person. But there's an unmistakable relationship between those three things. 3) Looking at 1 and 2 together, we (as Americans, Texans, member of the human race, whatever) should be focusing way WAY more attention on improving our education system. Because as it stands, it kind of sucks.

If you want to get into specifics, private education is actually doing OK, I'd say. Public schools in wealthy areas are probably also doing pretty well. But with poorer districts, the situation may be a little more... wavering. Some things have been done to address this, like voucher programs (sigh...), but actually changing the system so that ALL public schooling is quality- that's what needs to happen. Access to a good education for everyone.

But how to pull off such a massive overhaul? For a start, go to the start of the education system itself. What can be done to improve pre-K? What can be done to make sure that that glorious, everyone's-invited access is achieved?

The 81st session of the TX legislature is going on right now, and there are several bills that address these things, the front runners being HB 130 and its counterpart SB 21. If enacted, these bills would do a couple of totally sweet things: expand access to quality preK for districts that want it by way of government funding AND increased community involvement. Also, they would improve the quality of existing pre-K by, for example, lowering student to teacher ratios, increasing training hours for educators and administrators. For way way WAY more detail on these pieces of legislation and the early education movement in Texas in general, check this out (and also have a glance around bloggersunite.org, which is, and I don't use this phrase lightly, a wicked cool website.)

I've read some bloggery where other Texans out there have responded to this bill, and a major point of contention is as follows: more government support of pre-K means more government involvement, less parental responsibility, and wasted tax payer dollars on glorified day care. Some people have informed, intelligent reservations that come from this point of view; others are, I'm sorry, idiots. To the former (I'm not going to argue with someone who still slings around the "commie" as an insult), I offer this study. It confirms the ongoing benefit of HIGH QUALITY pre-k, and it shows a positive cost-benefit analysis of investing in high quality pre-k: an equivalent of $3.50 returned for every $1 spent. And that's a conservative estimate! Point is, even from a libertarian point of view, investing in early education will actually result in LESS government as well-educated and prepared children grow up and exert less pressure on government programs and resources. We should be able to see the big picture in a state that claims 'everything's bigger here', right?