NPR Ed – Kendra Yoshinaga
“The U.S. spends a lot of money on preschool — billions of dollars each year. When invested wisely, research suggests the costs are justified by significant returns to society, including savings from crimes not committed, welfare dollars not distributed, and taxes on higher earnings. But a new report suggests many preschool programs aren’t as good as they could (or should) be — because their teachers arrived on the job poorly trained. “There’s a lot of attention to expanding access [to preschool], but there’s insufficient attention to the quality of the programs,” says Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality.”(more)