Universal Coverage, but not Universal Preschool

So last week Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney vetoed a bill to create universal preschool for all three- and four-year-olds in the state, arguing that the proposal would be too costly. Right now Massachusetts is sort of in the middle of the states in terms of preschool--about 8 percent of Massachusetts 4-year-olds and 7 percent of 3-year-olds currently attend state-funded preschool programs, but the quality is not particularly high, with the major weaknesses related to teacher credentials.

The bill Romney vetoed passed both legislative houses unanimously and had the support of a very strong preschool advocacy coalition, which suggests there's a good chance it will be resurrected--and potentially passed--next year.

I generally support expanding public investment in early childhood education, and hope Massachusetts does move next legislative session to expand and improve the quality of publicly-funded preschool there. But I think Romney may have done the right thing. Although this legislation would have required the state to establish a universal preschool access program, it didn't actually provide funding for it. This made it an easy vote for legislators because they get to look like the good guys who support preschool right now while putting off the hard decisions about how to fund it for later. I don't think this is a responsible approach or one that's all that likely to result in high-quality programs or good results for kids. Case in point: Florida, where voters passed a referendum requiring the state to put in place UPK without creating a mechanism to fund it. When the state legislature there had to actually put the program in place they did it on the cheap, and many outside observers fear the quality standards for the program are too low. It's also worth noting that Massachusetts just committed to making universal health care coverage available to all its citizens (something that should also help youngsters there), and putting another massive initiative like UPK on top of that would have been a lot for the state to handle.

For reasons I don't understand (other than the lack of celebrity involvement) this hasn't gotten a lot of attention outside Massachusetts, despite Romney's political ambitions beyond the state.