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Two points here. First, Ms. Hawkins is the Director for the Department of Human Services for the State of Rhode Island. This should not be confused with the Executive Office of Health and Human Services or the Department of Children, Youth, and Families. Nor should it be confused with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Office of the Child Advocate, or the Office for Child Support. The point is that every agency short of the National Guard and Underwater Demolition is already involved with poverty prevention. In the last ten years, RI taxpayers have spent over $32 billion-with-a-B dollars on such efforts. I'll let Ms. Hawkins speak to the results: "...the number of kids and families in Rhode Island that live in poverty hasn’t changed in decades." But now we're supposed to believe that One More Program is going to make a difference? Ms. Hawkins might as well say: "No, this time we really mean it." Cynics would call all these offices and agencies Poverty Perpetuation Programs.

Second, Ms. Hawkins repeatedly invokes "the research...", knowing full well that the average person has neither the time nor inclination to challenge her. So she won't tell you that "the research" is, at best, inconclusive in pointing to measurable outcomes from Pre-K programs. And any positive outcomes tend to wash out by second or third grade when compared with matched children who did not attend Pre-K.. Long term positive outcomes are completely absent when studies control for poverty, parental income, and parental education. What the research DOES say is that kids from a two-parent family do better academically, emotionally, and socially than kids from other arrangements. And kids born to a married couple do better in all categories than kids born out of wedlock, though nobody is supposed to mention it. Much like all-day kindergarten and Head Start, which were advertised as educational panaceas but have never yielded the desired outcomes (other than give mom some free time), pre-K is another feel-good plan endorsed by the very same people who have already treated us to a very expensive and profoundly failed web of state government.