April 19, 2005

Policy Analysts Give Low Marks to Bredesen's $25m Pre-K Plan

The Tennessee Center for Policy Research is questioning Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen's claim that state-funded universal pre-kindergarten is a good investment. The TCPR has released a study, Hard Lessons Learned: Applying 40 Years of Government Pre-K to Benefit Tennessee's Children Today, which concludes that "empirical evidence suggests more early education will do little to improve children’s long-term education outcomes."

The study, by Drew Johnson, president of the TCPR, and Darcy Olsen, president of the Goldwater Institute , runs counter to Gov. Bredesen's assertion that universal pre-kindergarten is a "good return on our investment - with each dollar spent yielding dividends many times over." Says TCPR:

While the governor is right to consider the long-term effects of pre-k expenditures, there is little empirical evidence to demonstrate any lasting educational or socioeconomic benefit of government preschool programs.

It is important that the General Assembly consider the educational and economic consequences of creating a statewide pre-k bureaucracy, and the failures of government pre-k endeavors. It is more imperative still to consider who is responsible for raising, teaching and nurturing young children. Few parents or taxpayers feel comfortable encouraging the state to assume that duty.

TCPR: "If early education programs were essential building blocks for success, we would expect to see at least some relationship between that increased enrollment and student achievement."

But we don't. Yet Gov. Bredesen is asking the legislature to spend $25 million in lottery proceeds on the beginnings of a statewide universal pre-k program that would eventually cost taxpayers as much as $300 million per year. The TCPR calls that proposal "financially risky and academically unfounded" - and offers an alternative that would cost taxpayers much less over the long term and also target pre-k efforts where they are needed:

To the degree that the state remains involved in early education, we recommend alternative measures for improving Tennessee’s education system—including transparency, impact assessment and targeted individual student funding.

Adopting a flexible system of early education grants to cover the average cost of pre-k tuition costs for Tennessee’s most at risk four-year-olds is the least troubling proposition. The current $25 million earmarked from the lottery surplus for a "down payment" on a $250-$300 million pre-k program is more than enough to provide these targeted grants to every economically disadvantaged preschooler in Tennessee not served by existing pre-k programs.

Tennessee’s policymakers must realize that children overwhelmingly arrive at kindergarten prepared to learn without the assistance of a universal statewide pre-k bureaucracy. The educational failure comes in later grades when the state fails to capitalize on this early success. The legislators of the state would be wise not to replace Tennessee’s already sturdy early educational foundation and instead focus on the existing k-12 educational system currently crumbling around them.