GOP Leader Pans Preschool

Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley, R-Chariton, doesn't think much of preschool, especially if it's state-funded, according to a DM Register account of a legislative forum today. Radio Iowa's story is here.

McKinley and many Republicans don't like a current $90 million state program that funds voluntary preschool for 4-year-olds in school districts across Iowa. It's designed to offer a high-quality program taught by trained educators. Some GOP'ers want to cut its funding or eliminate it entirely.

McKinley doesn't think the program has much benefit. From the DMR:

After the forum, McKinley added: “Frankly it doesn't do any good. It has been shown to not to have any impact on student achievement past third grade.”The cost for the state-funded preschool program is on a trajectory that needs to stemmed, McKinley said.“It's taxpayers' dollars. I think we need to look at, ‘Are we holding these people accountable and are we getting what we expect to get?'”McKinley said he has seen research from North Carolina that shows that a teacher with a four-year certificate doesn't make any more of an impact on student achievement than teachers with no college degree at all.

The cost for the state-funded preschool program is on a trajectory that needs to stemmed, McKinley said.

“It's taxpayers' dollars. I think we need to look at, ‘Are we holding these people accountable and are we getting what we expect to get?'”

McKinley said he has seen research from North Carolina that shows that a teacher with a four-year certificate doesn't make any more of an impact on student achievement than teachers with no college degree at all.

There's always a study. Someplace. A while back.  And in this case, evidently, it shows that preschool is apparently one of the very few workplaces where training and education are of absolutely no benefit. I guess there's also the Legislature.

What always gets lost in this debate is that most of the the state-funded local programs McKinley derrides have forged cooperative efforts among other schools, private providers, church-based programs and nonprofits. So he's essentially also smacking private and church programs when he says the state effort is worthless. Reality just doesn't fit well with the big-government-is-bad political narrative.

I'm all for accountability. But Iowa's program hasn't been around long enough (three years) to judge its effectiveness. For one thing, only a few districts participated in the initial years. Now with many more districts are participating, we'll get a much better idea if it's working. 

And I really have no objection if the Legislature decides to make parents with higher incomes pay tuition for these programs, which are currently free, with some exceptions. Governor-elect Branstad favors means testing. It's probably a good compromise. If we can get the same reach for fewer bucks, great. I'll give Republicans credit.

Full preschool repeal isn't going to happen in a divided Legisalture. And I doubt most Republicans really want their message to be that preschool doesn't do Iowa kids any good. Maybe I'm wrong. In a state with a very high percentage of working two-parent couples, most people don't see it McKinley's way.