The Department of Education recently released a report calling for “significant new investments” in preschool — which spends just half a page on the evidence for preschool’s effectiveness. It paints a uniformly rosy picture, never mentioning that large-scale randomized experiments have failed to find lasting gains for the programs. The report even praises Head Start without any reference to the gold-standard Head Start Impact Study, which showed that effects faded out by first grade.
At least the Head Start study was overseen by a different department, Health and Human Services. The Education Department itself has paid for major preschool experiments – Even Start, curriculum studies, Tennessee Voluntary Pre-K, etc. — which have shown little in the way of sustained effects. The department apparently considers its own preschool studies to be so irrelevant that they deserve no mention in a review of the evidence — perhaps they would have been considered more relevant if their outcomes were different?
The larger problem here is that the government has again put its imprimatur on politicized science, and the public will be misled. It’s not unusual to see the mainstream press — especially the infamous fact checkers — cite a “government report” or “government data” as if the word government is a synonym of authoritative. That’s a big mistake. We should be especially wary of isolated data points and tendentious literature reviews that conveniently support the administration’s positions. It’s what I call “science-gilding” an issue – covering up an ideological position with the veneer of objectivity.
There is no compelling evidence that universal preschool will be a good long-term investment, despite the Education Department’s report. And that’s just one small example in a parade of dubious government claims: The Export-Import Bank does impose a cost on taxpayers, even though the government’s budget does not reflect it. Amnesty for illegal immigrants will probably not reduce the long-run deficit, contra the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Public pensions are not magic economic stimulus, despite the claims of state retirement boards. The government’s “green energy” loans are profitable — as the Energy Department once announced to much fanfare – just so long as all of the borrowing costs are hidden!
The list goes on and on.