Preschool in the Primaries: Score one for Senator Clinton

Campaigning in Florida today, Senator/Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton put forward an ambitious policy proposal to move the U.S. towards universal preschool education. This is the first major education proposal rolled out by the Clinton campaign, and it's a good one. The plan would provide states with matching grants (starting at $5 billion federal investment and scaling up to $10 billion) to expand publicly-funded preschool programs, with a priority on low-income and English language learners, and requires state preschool programs to meet high quality standards as a condition of funding.

This strategy (which might look familiar) capitalizes on the incredible state-level momentum around preschool and early childhood education, while also creating a much needed incentive for laggard states to get in gear and addressing the two major shortcomings of state preschool programs right now: they serve too few children and are often too low in quality to have significant impacts on those they do serve.

So far, we haven't seen a lot on education from the candidates, in part because it's less a key priority for voters this year than Iraq, national security, or the economy, but also because it's pretty early and candidates are just beginning to put meat on formal policy proposals. I hope other campaigns will follow Clinton's lead in proposing bold action on early childhood: It's right on the merits and also plays well politically. And even though significant preschool programs are expensive, they're a steal next to some of the health and security expenditures on the table.
For example, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who officially joined the race today, has a strong record of leadership on early childhood in New Mexico, where he created the state's first statewide preschool program, and should translate that same advocacy for early learning into his presidential campaign.

Stay tuned her for more coverage and comment as the campaigns start putting more ink on the page on their education platforms.