From yesterday’s New York Times: “Obama?s $10 Billion Promise Stirs Hope in Early Education”
And the $10 billion Mr. Obama has pledged for early childhood education would amount to the largest new federal initiative for young children since Head Start began in 1965. Now, Head Start is a $7 billion federal program serving about 900,000 preschoolers.
True to the progressive tradition of the NYT, the reporter could only muster two short paragraphs about the opposition to universal or expanded early childhood initiatives.
Outright opponents are fewer, and certainly less influential than they once were. In 1971, President Richard M. Nixon vetoed a bill that would have underwritten child care for everyone, arguing that the bill ?would commit the vast moral authority of the national government to the side of communal approaches to child rearing over against the family-centered approach.?
For years after that, conservatives blocked many early childhood initiatives, but resistance has diminished in recent years.
A good journalist would ask some basic questions. Who are the opponents? Why do they oppose early childhood education? What is the connection between Richard Nixon and today’s opposition, if any? Who are the “conservatives” that blocked the initiatives? Did any moderates or liberals join the opposition? Did any conservatives support early childhood programs? Why did conservatives support/block the initiatives? Why has their power “diminished in recent years?”
