While there are many people in power who proclaim that children are our future, and that we should do everything we can to support their becoming lifelong learners, the sad truth is that very rarely is that mantra carried out as a spending priority in our country.

Even after removing the outlier data caused by complications from years disrupted by Covid – which caused a massive dip in the total percentage of American children attending a preschool program of any kind – it remains a coin flip as to whether a child will be able to attend a Pre-K program, whether that is due to the cost of such a program or the lack of programming where they live.

This is despite consensus research clearly demonstrating that children who attend Pre-K are set up to become more successful learners, earners and overall high-functioning members of society in every different metric you can imagine.

The benefits go beyond being ready for traditional kindergarten and grade school, extending throughout their adolescent and teen years and into adulthood, with those who went through Pre-K going on to build more lucrative careers, avoid incarceration and establish more generational wealth than their peers who did not experience Pre-K.

It doesn’t take a team of researchers to understand why. Pre-K introduces children to the process of learning when they are at their most malleable, their brains primed to soak up as much information as can be directed their way. Children in Pre-K programs are exposed constantly to other children and social situations. They face and overcome challenges and receive feedback, helping to develop and define the intellectual and interpersonal muscles that will serve them well all their lives.

This is why we are bullish on a bill that would make strides toward universal Pre-K in Rhode Island. Sponsored by the chairs of the Education Committees in the Rhode Island House of Representatives and Senate, the goal proposed is a lofty challenge to reach 70% Pre-K inclusion in the state through programming options and funding sources.

There’s no disagreement – from educational advocates in Cranston, Warwick, Johnston or anywhere, really – that expanding access to Pre-K is a good idea. But as always with things that are universally seen as a good idea, funding becomes the elephant in the room.
We would argue that in the case of Pre-K, delaying this investment – and it is a smart investment – would only serve to delay Rhode Island’s potential for years and decades to come, and in the meantime continue the offering of too many lackluster outcomes to generations of children who are deprived of a better early educational experience – not to mention the adults who stand to benefit from having more affordable and enriching places to send their young children so they, as parents, can better work and thrive in an increasingly challenging economy.

That economy may never present ideal circumstances for introducing universal Pre-K. Even in the best of times, it would not be cheap. Lifting people’s prospects seldom is. But imagine the dividends it could pay.

That said, proponents of this legislation would be wise to install as much sustainability as possible in its financing. As we have seen countless times in the assembling of the state budget, when there is a true will, there is a way. It seems the real challenge here will be to find the right way to put this good idea to work with the viability and durability it will need to succeed.