The Case Against Universal Preschool in California

According to California's 'Preschool for All' supporters, universal preschool would enroll 70% of the 550,000 four year olds in California every year when fully implemented.  According to California's Legislative Analyst Office, 66% of California four year olds are already enrolled in preschool.  If California's $2.4 billion Preschool for All initiative meets its goal an additional 22,000 new four-year-olds would enroll, meaning it would cost taxpayers a whopping $109,000 per new preschooler.

There is little empirical evidence to demonstrate any lasting educational or socioeconomic benefit of government-run preschool programs. In addition, it's clear that state-run schools are already failing to manage their existing programs. Supporters radically underestimate the net cost of this new program, which would require mandatory credentialing under the auspices of the bureaucracy of the county superintendents of schools. And high costs are only the beginning. The current private preschool market offers an array of choices. Government preschool is a formulated, one-size-fits-all approach to education that institutionalizes young children at their most impressionable ages.

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