America’s 4-Year-Olds Need More High-Quality Preschools

President Barack Obama’s call for universal preschool exists more as a noble aspiration than as something the White House can realistically expect the present Congress to enact.

The idea is hardly far-fetched though. States are already moving, if unevenly, to expand public pre-kindergarten classes. Programs are taking root and spreading just as public kindergartens did in the mid-20th century. In 2011, 28 percent of American 4-year-olds attended a public academic preschool, up from 14 percent a decade earlier. Thirty-nine states offer some kind of program and eight have more than half of their 4-year-olds enrolled.