THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED: Preschool Helps Kids. Sometimes. Briefly.

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"THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED: Preschool Helps Kids. Sometimes. Briefly.

Everyone loves early-childhood education. It provides free day care, which helps working parents, who vote. Boosters say that it can also reduce inequality, help disadvantaged kids get ahead, and … who knows, probably cure shingles. What’s not to like?

I’m not against early-childhood education. If we had strong evidence that early-childhood education made a big difference in the lives of needy kids, I’d be for it. Even hard-bitten libertarians can acknowledge that children are a special case.

But I’d like better evidence. A lot of the advocacy ends up being based on small studies that showed big results, while larger and better-designed studies are more equivocal. In fact, two recent studies — one from Quebec, and one from Tennessee — suggest that the long-term results might actually be slightly negative.

The goal is a corps of unionized Democrat-voting daycare workers. Whether it helps kids is immaterial."