What the Midterm Elections Mean for Pre-K
By Katharine B. Stevens
BLOG
November 5, 2014
Cable news analysts and political junkies had a field day yesterday, and the fun will continue with weeks of relentless pundit commentary on “what the elections mean” for everything from the future of national politics to tax reform to the fate of the spotted toad.
Along those lines, I’ve been asked what the Republican takeover of the Senate means for pre-K. For two reasons, I think the answer is: not much.
First, as Ramesh Ponnuru argued last week in the National Review, yesterday’s outcome probably won’t bring much change to the stalled-out federal government. It seems especially unlikely that significant action will be taken anytime soon to reform the big federal early childhood programs, Head Start and the Child Care and Development Block Grant Program. Obama’s new $75 billion “Preschool for All” proposal is even less likely to get any traction inside the beltway. In other words, people who like watching paint dry may be in for a great couple of years as far as major federal preschool initiatives are concerned.
Second, the federal government just doesn’t have much impact on a lot of issues that are in fact important to regular people in their day-to-day lives. The outcomes of the governors’ races will make much more of a difference for pre-K than who controls the US Senate. And it’s hard to predict what those outcomes will really mean in practice because support for pre-K doesn’t split neatly down party lines. For example, while it’s often seen as a “blue” issue, three of the newly re-elected Republican governors—Susana Martinez in New Mexico, Rick Snyder in Michigan, and Nathan Deal in Georgia—ran on strong records in expanding early childhood education.
At the same time, in usually-blue Illinois, Maryland, and Massachusetts, Democrats who emphasized pre-K in their campaign platforms just lost to Republicans who didn’t. But in the current environment it seems improbable that people vote one way or another based on pre-K alone. And since polls have shown broad public support for early childhood education, Republican winners may pay more attention to preschool once they’re in office than they did when campaigning to get there.
Finally, voters in both Seattle and Denver approved ballot measures raising taxes to expand access to preschool. Whether that’s a harbinger for the rest of the country or not remains to be seen.
President Obama’s “Preschool for All” proposal highlighted early childhood education and introduced it into the national conversation. But while the issue seems to have picked up momentum, it’s largely playing out well under the national radar. Like much in education, the devil is really in the details at the local level.
See Also
Report ~ April 12, 2016
Congressional Testimony ~ July 13, 2017
Op-Ed ~ June 10, 2016