Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/285600
Universal preschool sounds like a no-brain- er. President Barack Obama proposed it in his State of the Union. He followed that ad- dress with a speech in Decatur, Ga. "Study a\er study shows that the earlier a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road," he said in Georgia. "But here's the thing: We are not doing enough to give all of our kids that chance. "Most middle-class par- ents can't afford a few hundred bucks a week for private pre- school. And for the poor chil- dren who need it the most, the lack of access to a great pre- school education can have an impact on their entire lives. And we all pay a price for that. And as I said, this is not specu - lation. Study after study shows the achievement gap starts off very young. This all sounds good, except facts are stubborn things. Before we immediately greenlight billions in new spending for a new government program (entitlement), let's take some time to review cur - rent pre-K programs, through thoughtful, published studies. Head Start, which was launched in 1965, provides early education to the children whose families earn up to 130 per - cent of the federal poverty level and disabled children nation- wide, for a total cost of $180 bil- lion to date. Obama has pro- posed $8 billion for Head Start in his just-released annual bud- get. The program serves over 1 million children in all 50 states at a cost of about $8,000 per student. In 2011, the U.S. Depart - ment of Health and Human Ser- vices commissioned a study to evaluate Head Start's effec- tiveness. The study found that though the program had a "pos- itive impact" on children's ex- periences through the pre- school years, "advantages chil- dren gained during their Head Start and age 4 years yielded only a few statistically signifi- cant differences in outcomes at the end of 1st grade for the sam- ple as a whole. Impacts at the end of kindergarten were scat- tered." Wait, only a "few statis- tically significant differences," for $8,000 per child per year? And this is what the govern- ment found! This study led Time mag- azine columnist Joe Klein (hardly a conservative) to call for the elimination of Head Start, writing, "According to the Head Start Impact Study, which was quite comprehen - sive, the positive effects of the program were minimal and vanished by the end of first grade. Head Start graduates performed about the same as students of similar income and social status who were not part of the program. These results were so shocking that the HHS team sat on them for several years. ... Finally there is indis - putable evidence about the pro- gram's effectiveness, provided by the Department of Health and Human Services: Head Start simply does not work." The agency updated this study in October 2012, waiting to release it until after Obama's reelection. The findings were the same, as Mary Katharine Ham notes on the widely read national conservative blog Hot Air. Ham summarizes the study thusly: "The theme of this eval - uation is 'no statistically mea- surable effect,' and what tiny positive effects there are among subgroups in behavioral and parental improvements are out - weighed by statistically mea- surable harmful impacts in oth- ers. This is not a wise way to spend billions of dollars." In December 2008, Stan- ford University's Maria Dono- van Fitzpatrick completed an exhaustive study of Georgia's pre-K program. Her conclu- sion: "The results of the study and its cost benefit analysis in- dicate scarce public funds may be used more efficiently by im- plementing targeted strate- gies in the design of pre-K pro- grams, perhaps by using ob- servable characteristics like the income of families or the population density in school districts." Vanderbilt University just completed a similar study, of which the Brookings Institu - tion's Russ Whitehurst says, "The most defensible conclu- sion is that these statewide programs are not working to meaningfully increase the ac- ademic achievement or social/ emotional skills and disposi- tions of children from low-in- come families." Where are the positive stud- ies, you ask? They are three and four decades old, for the most part. More recent stud- ies are very narrow and study small programs that would be impossible to replicate on a na- tional scale. Where does this leave us? It is easy to demagogue universal pre-K, and Democratic politi - cians are doing so everywhere. But before we start a new enti- tlement that will never die, we should evaluate what we have now. Can anyone say taxpay- ers got $180 billion in benefit from Head Start over the past 50 years? Whitehurst also said this: "Maybe we should figure out how to deliver effective pro - grams before the federal gov- ernment funds preschool for all." Matt Mackowiak is an Austin- and Washington-based Republi- can consultant and president of Potomac Strategy Group, LLC. He has been an adviser to two U.S. senators and a governor, and has advised federal and state po - litical campaigns across the coun- try. Matt Mackowiak Government agrees Head Start a failure Cartoonist's take Murray Clyde scratched his big head with his hind leg and stared remorse- fully at the modified photo adorning this column. "It… what's the word?" "Sucks," I replied. "Yes. I'm no longer in the photo," he observed. "I have protested, but to no avail." "What happened?" he asked. "What did you write that would cause them to omit me?" "To conserve print space, they have reduced the column photos. I was informed it was a decision made on high." "From on high? You mean from the almighty?" Murray Clyde had segued from remorse to incredulity. "Mark my bark, this will have repercussions, as we keep telling the Russians." "The editor says readers care about what we write, not about how we look." "That may be," said the bull - mastiff, "but the two of us set the tone for what is to follow. They know that this column is a joint effort…of fact and fantasy." "Yes, I supply the facts and you supply the fantasy." The big dog smiled. "Why not ask the publisher to put it on the ballot like the Supervisors did for the State of Jefferson non - sense? Our request is much more worthy of consideration." • • • And speaking of complain - ing, my sister-in-law reported she could not find my column in the DN the other day. And then C. Barber dropped by the office and registered the same com - plaint, wanting to know if I had been dropped from the paper along with the larger print. I re- plied that my efforts are still printed Wednesday and Fri- day...but she might hire a pri- vate investigator to find them. We both sighed and remem- bered when the paper had size if not substance. • • • If you are contemplating re - newing your driver's license, be not afraid. You may have heard you will be confronted with long lines of license seekers, but the DMV system has been stream - lined. If you are computer liter- ate, you can get on line, make an appointment for your exam, and even secure test questions and answers beforehand, which will build your confidence and make your test a breeze. • • • We, the missus and I, would prefer to be ob - served as "energetic" oc- togenarians rather than "able to sit up and take nourishment." The el- derly have less clout when dispensing wisdom from a wheelchair. The severely hand- icapped Stephen Hawking gets by with the aid of mechanical devices…but that is not a wish one would make when blow - ing out candles. I wrote "prefer to be observed." Not, of course, when taking our first tentative steps upon rising…nor the shuf - fle to the hot tub after tennis, but when sitting upright in the office fielding inquiries from clients. We conserve energy while dis - persing it. It is a winning combi- nation. • • • Speaking of the elderly, the Merry-Standish Players' produc - tion "Hootenanny," at the State Theater for the Arts last week- end, did a trip on yours truly.… and a good time was had by all. As imitation is the sincer- est form of flattery, I enjoyed the put-down in which I was lovingly portrayed as deceased but still upright at the typewriter com - posing "I Spy." A. Standish did an offstage voice-over in which I boringly described Red Bluff "in my day." I thought L. Merry, dressing me as a dummy with a skull face, was a bit premature, but I'm sure the message was not lost on the young audience witnessing my "one foot in the grave" depiction. If I am to be so honored in their next show, I would insist on being on stage, and a live partic - ipant in a Carmel Growney lap dance. • • • In the newly revised DN, I was startled to note that a new sec - tion titled FAITH listed a total of 81 churches in Tehama County. It seems no longer fashionable to list oneself merely as a Chris - tian. Perhaps the faithful now- adays have to recite like a sol- dier giving name rank and se- rial number for permission to enter the pearly gates. In order for all 81 churches to survive in this increasingly secular world, it would seem prudent for them to consolidate to graduate. How - ever, pastors are not likely to al- low their flocks to merge with others for seldom does a church have two head ducks. But this is none of my concern for the time being. Of course, when the day of reckoning cometh, it will all be sorted out… one way or another. • • • Bumper Stickers: "BE ALERT. THE WORLD NEEDS MORE LERTS." And, "MAKE LOVE NOT WAR. See driver for details." • • • Block that metaphor. From the website of the Charlotte Ob - server: "Senate Minority Leader John Land, also frequently at odds with Sanford, doubts the governor can change or knows how to compromise. 'If he didn't get his way, he'd take his balls and go home, so he left a lot of things on the table,' the Manning Democrat said." • • • Last week's quiz was first an - swered by D. McGill followed closely by J. Quincy and L. Brown, who offered a plethora of words containing double Zs: buzzard, guzzle, gizzard, puz - zle, muzzle, nuzzle, buzzer, jazz and razz plus words containing the word "bug:" buggy, bugged, debug, stink and june bug, bug - aboo, bugle...and if you are into cars, Bugatti. Inspired. This week's quiz: What do these letters all have in common: AEFHIKLMNTWXYZ? And these?: abcdefghjmnopqrstu. And these?: CDILMVX. • • • A baby camel turned to his fa - ther and asked, "Dad, why do we have humps on our back?" "Well, son," the father replied, "our humps contain the fat necessary to sustain us through all the days we are out in the desert." "Oh," said the baby, "and why do we have long eyelashes?" "They're to protect our eyes from sand storms which rage in the des - ert." "Fine, Dad, but why do we have big padded feet?" "Because the desert is very soft and so we need big feet so we don't sink into the sand." "Thanks, Dad. So...what are we doing in the London Zoo?" Robert Minch is a lifelong resident of Red Bluff, former columnist for the Corning Daily Observer and Meat Industry magazine and au - thor of the "The Knocking Pen." He can be reached at rminchandmur- ray@hotmail.com. I Say Minch says: Dog gone it The theme of this evaluation is 'no statistically measurable effect,' and what tiny positive effects there are among subgroups in behavioral and parental improvements are outweighed by statistically measurable harmful impacts in others. This is not a wise way to spend billions of dollars. Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. My family lived in Manton for 9 years and I feel the Manton School is great for Kinder- garten to 5th grade, and I choose to put my son in Berrendos Middle School, and it was the best thing I did for him...Red Bluff High School is a big school and the kids need to adjust for a successful education. Janet Piel-Long: Comment on proposal to bus Manton 6- through 8-graders to Red Bluff A stressed uneasy child in a new environ- ment does not learn as well as peers. They are too worried about how the others their age will see them and how to fit in to care. I am an alumna of Manton School and a mili- tary child so I know both sides of the coin well...It is not easy going from a school pop. of 37 to a school pop. of over 150-200. Rebah Heino: Comment on proposal to bus Manton 6- through 8-graders to Red Bluff Greg Stevens, Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EdITorIal Board How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@red bluffdailynews.com Phone: 530-527- 2151 ext. 112 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBooK.CoM/ RBdAILynEwS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REdBLuFFnEwS Robert Minch OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, March 28, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBooK.CoM/RBdAILynEwS AND TwITTER.CoM/REdBLuFFnEwS a6