Absolutely. According to a 1998-1999 early childhood longitudinal study, 49 percent of children who do not know the alphabet as they enter kindergarten are from middle or higher income families. Additionally, the most rigorous study of pre-k programs found that all children benefit regardless of family income bracket.

Further, a 2002 report published by the Economic Policy Institute showed that the gap in reading skills between middle-income children and their more affluent peers is greater than the gap between middle-class and low-income children.

No. No legitimate national advocacy organization that has called for compulsory pre-k attendance. In fact, only a very few states even require kindergarten attendance. The commonly expressed goal is to make pre-k available to all children whose parents wish them to attend. Data shows that pre-k participation is already nearly universal for children of well-educated parents with high incomes. Parents want to send their children to good pre-k programs; the problem is that so few can afford good programs without help.

On the contrary, children who start behind, stay behind. For example, children who learn the names and sounds of letters before entering kindergarten are 20 times more likely to read simple words by the end of kindergarten than are children who enter kindergarten not knowing the letters of the alphabet. Children who do not know their letters prior to kindergarten too often fail to catch up with their peers who do. Eighty-eight percent of children who are poor readers in first grade remain poor readers by the fourth grade. Children who are not at least modestly skilled readers by the end of third grade are unlikely to graduate from high school.

Yes. Numerous studies have shown and continue to show that benefits from pre-k education carry over into the first years of school and even well into adulthood. These benefits include increased academic achievement and school success and improvements in social-emotional development, behavior, and conduct.

Dr. James Heckman, a University of Chicago economist and Nobel Laureate, has concluded that the pre-k years are the most productive years for new educational investment and that the long-term impacts of early education on social and emotional development may be the most important consequences of pre-k education.

While some research has indicated that the effects of pre-k on children's IQ scores decrease over time, the impact in a variety of other areas—delinquency and crime, special education placements, high-school-graduation rates, and achievement scores, among many others—show that high-quality pre-k yields important long-term benefits.

Yes. The most effective pre-k teachers have a bachelor’s degree with specialized training in early childhood development. Teachers with these qualifications have been found not only to be better equipped to help young children acquire fundamental academic skills but also to be more sensitive and attentive to young children. Teachers with a four-year college degree are less directive, more responsive, and better able to support positive social and emotional growth than teachers with less formal education.