Universal Preschool Argument

The idea of universal preschool (UP) has recently exploded across America. Who wouldn’t want cheap or free early education for their children? From a distance the whole idea looks as if there’s nothing wrong with it, but close up it’s a different story. While parents will be saving money, the schools are going to be losing it, with funds being spread even thinner than before. In conjunction to this, the government would be the ones providing the money, and therefore, the curriculum. The trouble is that they would then take the “cookie-cutter” approach, shaping kids’ minds the way they see fit. This tactic could ideally lead to the cure of our economic gaps that Thomas L. Friedman explains in his renowned book, The World is Flat, but will only

Friedman is known for his book about how our world is becoming flat, meaning everyone now has a chance to compete in global markets, even individuals. The United States is struggling with this, as we are currently ranked around 17th place in a list of 50 nations evaluated on educational standings, behind most Asian and Scandinavian countries (Gayathri). His main theme is that there are several gaps that contributed to the United States falling behind our global competition. Universal preschool is a proposal that is supposed to help with the Education Gap at the Top, which is really two gaps rolled into one, going hand in hand with the Numbers Gap. The idea is that not enough people are going into science and engineering fields (the Numbers Gap), which is a direct result of the educational systems not getting enough people interested or involved in these careers (the Educational Gap). The world becoming flat is supposed to be a good thing, but so far it hasn’t been for us in America. We are falling increasingly behind, especially in these essential programs. Friedman quotes a report, by the National Science Board, on degrees awarded in these fields that says, “1.2 million [degrees] were earned by Asian students in Asian universities, 830,000 were granted in Europe, and 400,000 in the United States” (345). In a flattening playing field, this is a huge disadvantage for our country. Kids are simply not interested in these harder subjects. This is where the worry of a

While it may grant access to millions of children, this will only hurt them and our economy more due to insufficient funding of these schools. The children will get low quality education that will end up widening the Education Gap at the Top that Friedman addresses instead of closing it. UP will extinguish Friedman’s idea of CQ+PQ>IQ, by taking advantage of the children and shaping their minds the way they seem fit instead of allowing children to shape it themselves. Along with this, the new preschools will be created more as a drilling form of education, rather than a nourishing one. Sending children to school to be put under constant pressure of tests and cognitive learning that they are not yet mature enough for will have longer lasting effects on them than the actual schooling will. Alan Blinder was quoted in the World is Flat by saying, “How we educate our children may prove to be more important than how much we educate them” (Friedman 309). Universal preschool is focusing more on the numbers rather than the quality of education, going against Thomas L. Friedman’s ideas of how to save our economy. UP is only going to hurt America, dragging us down instead of helping us get back