Business Group's Report Advocates 'Preschool for All'

By Linda Jacobson

The federal government should establish a new grant program for states to help pay for preschool education for all 3- and 4-year-olds, urges a report scheduled for release this week by the Washington-based Committee for Economic Development.

The U.S. government should also form an independent body that would ensure that such programs were meeting "acceptable standards for early education," the report says.

"For too long, the United States has paid lip service to the importance of preschool opportunities that prepare children for school without undertaking the level of investment needed to turn promise into reality," the authors write. "Just as we have long seen elementary and secondary education for all as a societal responsibility, we must now undertake to extend educational opportunity to all children...