A child’s most formative years are in the first few years of its life. From the moment a child is conceived, it is constantly growing both physically and intellectually at an expeditious pace. However, by the time a child reaches the age of two years old the brain’s sensitivity to development has already begun to decline. The most impressionable years of a young child’s life should be saturated with positive encouragement that allows a child to flourish in its vital learning period. Pre-school is a valuable asset that holds many potential benefits for the growth of children, however many American’s cannot afford to provide this benefit to their children. Although some people claim that the costs of universal pre-school education outweigh the …show more content…
The disadvantaged students who would otherwise not be able to attend pre-school would gain not only an effective early education, but also increased chances of graduating high school, greater success in employment, and decreased incarceration rates (Potter, 2014). Providing the opportunity for all children to attend early education would replace money that America is already spending on keeping criminals behind bars and money spent on welfare. Research suggests that for every dollar spent on universal pre-school, there will be a ten dollar future profit (Potter, …show more content…
Regardless of socioeconomic standing, pre-school has proven to benefit children’s development as they grow in education. According to Halley Potter’s article in the U.S. News data from Tulsa, Oklahoma shows that “poor students who attended public pre-K were 11 months ahead of their peers when entering kindergarten, and near-poor students were 10 months ahead, but even middle-class students were seven months ahead.” (Potter, 2014). Matt Kibbe argues in his article that “Reading proficiency has remained unchanged over the last 20 years, while Oklahoma’s test scores have dropped from above the national average in 1998 to four points below the average today.”(Kibbe, 2014). Many people see this data and mark the idea of universal pre-school as a failing enterprise, but it is important to recognize that people are more than their test scores and that reading proficiency is only one aspect of educational development. Early education implements “school readiness by focusing on the child's development in: language and literacy, early math, social skills, self-help, nature and science; daily nutritious meals; close review of health history; active ‘hands on’ involvement in learning.” (Chen). It is important that a child grows to their full potential as a person rather than into a high test