Advocates, Scholars and Officials Celebrate Newly Hot Politics of Pre-K National Rollout Handicapped by Republican Penny Pinching, $1 billion Cut to $250 Million NY and NJ Lead Nation, Rutgers Research Is Key, American Prospect Covers Topic Measuring Quality Still Ongoing Project, Though Huge Overall Value Clear Demos, the small but unusually influential progressive think tank on the 5th Floor at 220 Fifth Avenue, mounted a panel of four last night to discuss the emergence of Pre-K schooling as the issue that has suddenly risen to the top of the national and state agenda in the past two years. Moderator Sharon Lerner had just published a piece in the current (Jan 2014) American Prospect, beautifully timed to go with the new NYC mayor Bill de Blasio's passionate endorsement of the project as the primary initial concern of his new Administration. Her article, "Starting Smart: Business Leaders support it. Republican governors back it. The public is all for it. Will the United States finally invest in the undeniable benefits of early education?" had started off with the often forgotten fact that this was not the first time that the nation had addressed this notion. The House and Senate had passed the Comprehensive Child Development Act in 1971 after years of national debate, only to have it vetoed by Richard Nixon (his speech ghosted by Patrick Buchanan) as a threat to parental authority and involvement with children. This time around, Lerner noted in her introduction to the panel, it has Presidential backing, with Obama endorsing it a year ago in his State of the Union address, and again this week, and New York has taken the lead with de Blasio's enthusiasm matched by Governor Cuomo. Demos "with its deep commitment to upward mobility had long been interested in the topic", she said, and the American Prospect editors deserved kudos for devoting 12,000 words in its current issue to the topic of early education. In her article she had pointed out that poverty has a terrible effect on young brains, science shows. A cognitive gap between rich and poor infants emerges as early as nine months, with a 60% lead in test scores for the rich kids by the time they enter kindergarten. Later on in life, the unhappy result has been clear for decades - repeating grades, dropout from high school, drugs, teen pregnancy, unemployment and prison all much higher for the poor. One teacher with 30 years experience attending the panel told us before the meeting started, "you can tell children which have had pre-K very quickly". Contrary to Nixon's Utopian vision of the family, more than 70% of mothers are now in the workforce, so there is no parent home to nurture and educate young children. Sharon then introduced a panel of four people who have taken a leading role in the politics and research of the topic, all of whom seemed thrilled at the way their issue has suddenly emerged at the very top of the national and state agenda, with huge public support. One reason it turned out was the research of the Nobel economist James Heckman of the University of Chicago who found that the Perry Preschool program in Michigan started in the sixties had saved $16 in taxes for every $1 spent. Early education had a ten per cent return, better than the stock market or other government programs, increasing productivity and saving costs such as police, prison and rehabilitation. In other words, pre-K was not only right but smart policy even by Republican.and Tea party lights. It is this dollars and cents argument which seems to have won the day. Jacqueline Jones, Obama's deputy assistant at the Office for Early Learning until recently ("You can't know how lovely it is to be here as a civilian") dated the incoming tide from 2009 when the Secretary of Education Duncan came from Chicago where he was CEO of the public schools and became very sensitive to the important of pre-K, she said.