There鈥檚 been a lot of talk about expanding access to preschool programs鈥攂ut more must be done to ensure those programs are high quality, Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. plans to say in a speech at the University of Virginia鈥檚 Curry School of Education Wednesday.
鈥淎ccess to a low-quality program is no access at all,鈥� King plans to say, according to remarks distributed ahead of his 4 p.m. speech. (You can watch it .) 鈥淚t鈥檚 a false promise. It鈥檚 a missed opportunity. Well-off parents can pay to send their children to programs of the highest quality. If we don鈥檛 provide children of lower- and middle-income families with access to quality programs, our work is doing nothing to reduce inequity in our society.鈥�
King planned to give a shout-out to two the Obama administration鈥檚 grants, which he planned to say have kept quality in mind. That program and other efforts have encouraged states to use a 鈥渜uality rating tool鈥� so parents can better understand whether the programs they are selecting will benefit their children, King planned to say. The number of states using a quality rating tool jumped from 17 to 40 during the administration鈥檚 tenure, King planned to say.
King planned to note that research consistently shows that there are big and lasting benefits to preschool. But he planned to point to one study out of Vanderbilt University that looked at the long-term effects of Tennessee鈥檚 voluntary pre-kindergarten program. That study found that by grade 3, kids who had participated in the program were more likely to have negative feelings about school than those that hadn鈥檛. Read more on the Vanderbilt study from my colleague, Christina Samuels, here.
鈥淎s you can imagine, this is troubling news to people like me, who believe in the power of publicly funded preschool to change lives,鈥� King planned to say.
But, he planned to say, there may be lessons in this study.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 ignore it,鈥� he planned to say. 鈥淚t may point to implementation or oversight issues--or what happens to kids between kindergarten and the third grade--but we don鈥檛 really know, and we need to continue asking questions. Personally, I think it鈥檚 a powerful reminder of the importance of not just access, but quality, and knowing which indicators of quality matter most.鈥�
So how can early childhood programs improve quality? Making sure teachers are warm, nurturing, and can help students build their language skills, as well as making sure the environment is diverse and exposes children to peers from all different backgrounds, King planned to say. What鈥檚 more, early-childhood education teachers need to be paid adequately, so that they don鈥檛 need to take on a second job to make ends meet, King planned to say.
Early-childhood education is an area that both presidential candidates have said they want to address. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton wants to partner with states to move towards universal pre-kindergarten. And Republican nominee Donald Trump wants to offer paid maternity leave to mothers who don鈥檛 have it through their employer, as well as expand tax credits to help parents cover the cost of childcare. .
Photo: Acting U.S. Secretary of Education John King speaks during a roundtable discussion on Jan. 14, 2016, at Bowie High School in El Paso, Texas. 鈥擵ictor Calzada/The El Paso Times via AP