DECATUR, GEORGIA – President Barack Obama on Thursday rolled out a plan to vastly expand government-funded early childhood education in Georgia but kept the price secret.
Obama has raised hopes among parents who want preschool for all. But Republicans are wary of high costs and have made clear they have reservations about funding universal preschool.
The president set up yet another clash with Republicans over spending and the proper scope of government in this week’s State of the Union address when he proposed working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every American child. Two days later, he played blocks and gave fist-bumps to kids in a preschool classroom in Georgia, casting the plan as part of a moral imperative to give every child a shot at success.
“The size of your paycheck shouldn’t determine your child’s future,” Obama told about 600 teachers and parents at the Decatur Community Recreation Center, singling out Georgia as a model for making universal preschool a priority. “Let’s fix this. Let’s make sure none of our kids start out the race of life already a step behind.”
The White House offered the first details about Obama’s plan Thursday, describing it as a “continuum of high-quality early learning for a child, beginning at birth and continuing to age 5.”
The government would fund public preschool for any 4-year-old whose family income is 200 percent or less of the federal poverty level — a more generous threshold than the current program known as Head Start, which generally serves children from families below 130 percent of the poverty line. All 50 states and the federal government will chip in.
Obama also proposed letting communities and child care providers compete for grants to serve children from birth to age 3. And once a state has established its program for 4-year-olds, it can use funds from the program to offer full-day kindergarten, according to the plan.
Conspicuously absent from Obama’s program were any details about the cost — a key concern among Republicans. Obama’s aides have insisted the new plan will not add to the nation’s nearly $16.5 trillion debt, but they won’t say what else will be cut to offset the cost, offering only vague allusions to cutting entitlement spending and closing loopholes.
In a conference call with reporters Thursday, two of Obama’s top policy aides declined — five times — to explain how much the program will cost.
The price tag for expanding preschool to more than 4 million 4-year-olds is potentially staggering. For instance, the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank with close ties to the Obama administration, proposed a $10,000 per child match to what states spend. That could cost tax payers almost $100 billion over 10 years.
Click to enlarge