One billion dollars plus, the Federal government is going to spend this over the next two years on “infant, toddler, and pregnant women” preschool (Lukas). This huge amount to school infants and toddlers is only a portion of what all taxpayers must pay to run preschools across America. Unnecessary government spending, increased taxes, a reduction of choices for parents, and nearly no long term effects are some of the reasons to shift funding for preschools away from the government and back to the parents of children attending them.
Although government spends billions annually running many preschool and early preschools, no evidence shows any demand for them (Burke). The increased funding thrown at preschools is based on one research trial done in the mid sixties. This data is considered flawed (Olsen). In 2008 more than one billion dollars in funding got added to the preschool budget (Lukas). Lindsey Burke from the Heritage Foundation reports more than 25 Billion dollars go towards child care and preschool, with Obama asking for another 10 Billion dollars to fund his "preschool for all" addition. She also states that only 13% of kids in preschool use the federally funded programs while the rest use private preschools. Economist James Heckman says universal programs are "inefficient, costly, [and] wasteful of public dollars"(Finn).
Taxes are governments cure to the spending on preschools. When Head Start was instituted in the mid sixties, mothers using it were expected to return to the workforce and the government could recover the expenditures of Head Start through increased tax revenues. When less than half of the costs were recovered this way, taxes had to be raised. In 2009 only 900,000 kids used the federally funded programs like Head Start. These kids cost taxpayers just over $10,555 per child (Burke). California’s state version of "preschool for all" is paid for by taxing residents 1.7% more (Olsen).