Does Ohio Need to Expand Public Preschool?
Across Ohio, community centers, churches and synagogues, private schools and in-home providers ably deliver preschool services to tens of thousands of children a year. However, a policy change written into Governor Ted Strickland's proposed budget and passed by the Ohio House threatens to destroy Ohio's successful system of free market-oriented and community-based preschool programs.
The governor's plan looks to marginalize these community-based providers with the muscle and tax resources of Ohio's government schools. The proposed policy change is now before the Ohio Senate.
Currently, the law limits the number of public preschools throughout the state. School districts must demonstrate that preschool programs are not already provided by existing community-based organizations. The district must also be eligible for poverty-based assistance.
However, the governor proposes eliminating the "lack of alternatives" requirement, leaving only the subjective requirement that districts prove a "need." Free to offer preschool services with access to tax dollars and subsidies, public schools could eventually force these effective and successful community-based providers out of business.
The virtual destruction of the private preschool industry occurred in England where taxpayer funded preschool was introduced in the late 1990s. By 2000, a BBC News investigation found that government funded preschools "proved disastrous for the private and voluntary sector."
Before acting, the Senate must seriously consider the consequences of expanding the reach of Ohio's under-performing and bloated public education bureaucracy. Today, nearly 115,550 children in the state’s eight largest cities attend public schools on academic watch or academic emergency. In fact, 251 Ohio pubic schools do not meet the state’s minimum education standards. Public schools have hardly earned the right to expand beyond current services.
Senators also should look at the financial and educational results of similar government funded preschool expansions in other states and nations.
In Georgia, the legislature and taxpayers learned the hard way. Georgia State University researchers found, "After 10 years (1993-2003) the Georgia preschool program ha(d) served over 300,000 children at a cost of $1.15 billion and children's test scores were unchanged," according to their Georgia Pre-K Longitudinal Studies 1997-1998 and 1996-2001.
We often hear how far behind American students are academically compared to their European counterparts. While Europe has been using public money to educate preschoolers for years, Americans routinely outscore their European counterparts in every subject at the primary school level. Further, the data shows that we need to focus more attention on our middle schools as opposed to preschools. That is where our children begin to fall behind.
Legislators should not be swayed by emotional rhetoric when debating the expansion of the preschool program. Considering the success of students who have used vouchers to escape failing public schools, clearly a better option for our youngest and most vulnerable students would be through the same type of scholarship program that EdChoice voucher students enjoy.
Instead of undermining our private sector and expanding the reach of failing government schools, legislators should protect community-based private preschool providers. Ohio needs to keep moving in the right direction - let parents decide what education is best for their kids and when it should start.
Beth Lear is a policy analyst at the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions.
