tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post6019630933321983314..comments2024-03-28T05:37:00.890-04:00Comments on the daily howler: SCHOOLED ABOUT PRESCHOOL: Red states rule!<b>bob somerby</b>http://www.blogger.com/profile/02963464534685954436noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-19525186327550527892013-02-18T17:36:05.070-05:002013-02-18T17:36:05.070-05:00"Since Mr. Somerby does not cite any actual e..."Since Mr. Somerby does not cite any actual evidence..."<br /><br />" all liberals other than TDH are jerks. Don't you get that? TDH doesn't do nuance when it comes to liberals"<br /><br />Somerby: "This week, we’ll show you how some of our liberal leaders behaved in the wake of Obama’s proposal."<br /><br />Uh, oh.<br /><br />You can bet money that "mch" and "urban legend" are going to get taken to school this week...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-52770229701363113462013-02-18T14:40:55.388-05:002013-02-18T14:40:55.388-05:00"Liberals in Blue states hear those shrill co..."Liberals in Blue states hear those shrill conservative voices from national news sources constantly and are (understandably) less likely to hear news about Red state governors and legislatures quietly going about the business of creating universally available pre-K schools."<br /><br />No, it's because all liberals other than TDH are jerks. Don't you get that? TDH doesn't do nuance when it comes to liberals. I have been adamantly in favor of superior pre-school education particularly for children who can't afford it, and I have cared a flying fig about the needs of these kids for longer than TDH has been alive. I was not, however, aware of what has been going on in Oklahoma and Georgia, and I resent some of his more recent vitriolic narratives that are as simple-minded in their way as anything Gail Collins does. I am thrilled to see programs like this working in any state, red or not, and am always happy to see more complex ways of looking at people I normally see as political opponents -- e.g. the fact that the student president at Ol' Miss is an African-American woman. <br /><br />You hit the nail on the head, and TDH didn't. TDH has done a fantastic job on education generally, including the deep-diving into NAEP data and demonstrating mainstream and some liberal media false narratives. But these daily and over-the-top rants against liberals in general (and some liberals in particular) only undermine the impact of the valuable stuff.<br /><br />P.S. It seems to me these so-called persistence studies of pre-school programs are bullshit. Naturally, measurable effects are going to be diluted over time, especially if there are forces working against those effects -- like seeing a huge percentage of adults in the neighborhood unable to find a job. If a program makes kids with few in-home or neighborhood advantages better prepared for actual school, that's really all we need to know for deciding whether they are worth it or not. urban legendnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-26703250238917537062013-02-18T12:14:19.726-05:002013-02-18T12:14:19.726-05:00Since Mr. Somerby does not cite any actual evidenc...Since Mr. Somerby does not cite any actual evidence of liberals expressing surprise at the universal pre-K availability in these Red states, I am not clear about the source of his indignation here. Let's assume, though, that many liberals, especially those living in solidly Blue states, would indeed be surprised. Perhaps that would be because conservatives in Congress and conservative publications have long been hostile to Head Start and have loudly complained that all pre-K is an assault on the American family (see, for instance, the piece in the Sunday Times Week in Review on women's stalled progress). Liberals in Blue states hear those shrill conservative voices from national news sources constantly and are (understandably) less likely to hear news about Red state governors and legislatures quietly going about the business of creating universally available pre-K schools. <br /><br />The more interesting question is why more Blue states haven't undertaken the ambitious projects these Red states have. A few possible answers occur to me. The Blue states tend to be much wealthier than the Red, and the most influential, regularly voting liberals in the Blue states can afford to send their children to private pre-K schools, ignoring the needs of the less well-to-do in their midst. I suspect this is the real source of Mr. Somerby's outrage -- and he's right to feel outrage, to the extent better-off liberals actually do ignore the needs of those with far fewer resources. But it's not that simple. <br /><br />In Blue states like my own (MA), the state provides subsidies for children to attend private pre-K when their parents cannot afford the tuition. Some (many? I really don't know) public elementary schools also provide pre-K, financed by the town/city with help from the state. The problem here in MA at least is that, even if in theory every child, no matter how poor, could attend pre-K, there is a shortage of pre-K programs. The programs even in my small town usually have waiting lists. (The public school program has to limit enrollment to its pre-K program, which it does not do for other grades, of course.) This shortage of programs contributes to ignorance of their existence among the families who may need them most, e.g., poor immigrant families. Also, once you do know about these programs, navigating the bureaucracy in order to obtain a subsidy is, as always, a pain in the butt and may scare away the very people whose children could most benefit from pre-K schooling.<br /><br />Why hasn't MA just moved to have every public elementary school offer pre-K? Well, I think we are moving in that direction. It will cost money though (save money in the long run, but also cost money now), and, as you may have heard, states are feeling strapped for money these days. Meanwhile, since MA has long been subsidizing pre-K for those who can't afford it (possibly for many more years than these Red states have done much of anything on that front), people are inclined to just try to keep going with current approaches. Inertia rather than the smug liberal indifference Mr. S. is always ready to posit.<br /><br />Let's hope Obama can, on this one issue at least, unite liberals and conservatives. Tactically, he was wise to highlight what Red states have recently been doing. If Obama's attempts at creating unity fail, I doubt that liberals will have stood in his way. As you may have noticed, conservatives in Congress and conservative pundits tend to oppose anything that Obama proposes, even if he proposes what had originally been a conservative policy. (Think Obamacare.) mchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-320631944590948452013-02-18T11:21:44.711-05:002013-02-18T11:21:44.711-05:00Pretty section of content. I just stumbled upon
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