Barack Obama promises to “give every child access to high quality pre-kindergarten programs”. Adjusted for expenditures on public education, America already has the world’s dumbest children. Obama now proposes to extend an American child’s exposure to the public school system.
What would happen if kids didn’t go to school early? They could end up like students in Finland, who start at 7 and finish way ahead of American kids in achievement. They could end up staying home with their parents, like John Stuart Mill who hung out with his dad and was able to read Greek and Latin by age 3.
It is unclear what new powers would need to be granted to the federal government to enable a U.S. president to force states to add a couple of years to their public school systems, but perhaps Obama will be able to get this through..
Maybe the kids in Finland have smarter parents to hang out with. Gotta break the cycle somewhere.
I guess they won’t get it “earlier” != “better”.
It seems also that better also means. “take away the children from their parents and give them to “educated” personal”….
Regards
Friedrich
Much easier way to improve education: make it subject to free market forces. A voucher program would be a good start. How about not building in school costs into property taxes and keeping the money in the hands of parents to spend as they see fit?
Universities today are engaged in a facilities arms race because easy student loan money hides the true cost of an education. How about we stop subsidizing student loans… let the cost of education be a true cost and let buyers decide what they want in a college (e.g. a formal education, trade school, or snazzy buildings and an opportunity to mingle with blue blood).
a couple things to consider:
– school is “compulsory” from ages 7-16 in finland, but they absolutely have an early education system, which many families take advantage of; the reason the age was set at 7 was because 100 years ago, rural finnish families had limited access to schools, and the state didn’t want to incur an undue burden on them. finland actually began major reforms of their early ed program back in 2000. interesting note: 4% of the finnish GDP is spent on daycare for young children, maternity grants, and other family policy benefits. i found a fascinating, but lengthy, report all about early ed in finland with a quick google search: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/48/55/2476019.pdf.
– john stuart mill sounds like a bright kid, but i don’t think it’s wise to base national education policy on anecdotal evidence, do you?
– early education has shown considerable promise in better preparing american schoolchildren; i’d recommend looking into the research available at http://www.ounceofprevention.org
also, i don’t know what it means to have the “world’s dumbest children” when “adjusted for expenditure.”