Pre-K? Pre-Pre-K?

Milwaukee Idiot posts a story from California which should be remembered here, as the WEAC Jobs For Teachers Campaign gets off the ground in Wisconsin:

After four decades of research, we do know that young children from poor families benefit handsomely from attending preschool. But under Proposition 82, which will appear on the June ballot, lower-income children would get less than half of the estimated $2.4 billion in new annual pre-school funding that would be raised by taxing the wealthiest Californians.

That's partly because over half of these children already attend free preschool.

At least $1.4 billion would go to subsidize better-off parents who can already afford to pay for preschool.The irony is that the small benefit gained by sending middle-class kids to preschool disappears by third grade, according to a decade-long federal study released last fall.

And even MORE interesting:

Children's growth curves do rise when their teacher holds a two-year degree in child development and so is better able to organize stimulating activities and offer steady emotional support. No additional gains are detected when the preschool teacher has a four-year degree, although labor costs skyrocket, a finding newly replicated by UCLA and University of North Carolina researchers.

You'll hear more about the "virtues" of pre-K. In a few cases, the argument is valid. A FEW.