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In Michelle Gillett’s Feb. 19 column, "Preschool definitely works," she buys into President Obama’s false claim that preschool is effective and therefore we should be spending additional billions of dollars to expand it.
Unfortunately and inconveniently for the president and Ms. Gillett, the president’s own Department of Health and Human Services released, late last year, a devastating report on the ineffectiveness of the government’s already existing $8 billion-a-year pre-K program, Head Start. This study concludes: "There were initial positive impacts from having access to Head Start, but by the end of the third grade there were very few impacts Š in any of the four domains of cognitive, social-emotional, health and parenting practices. The few impacts that were found did not show a clear pattern of favorable or unfavorable impacts for children."
Ms. Gillett quotes the president about preschool: "This works. We know it works." In fact, this federal program doesn’t work and we know it doesn’t work. If the president has his way we taxpayers will be throwing good money after bad.
WILLIAM H. VOGT
Stockbridge
