No, universal preschool won’t solve Kindergarten readiness issues in Kentucky

The state’s own data show it

Why doesn’t the governor know?

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear posted this Tweet just before Christmas.

Maybe he thought no one would spot this assertion is just a sack of coal.

This table shows 2022-23 data collected by the Kentucky Department of Education from its annually administered Kindergarten Screener assessment (Spreadsheet online here).

The top row of data shows that among all entering Kindergarteners, 38% directly tested as ready and another 8% would be ready if they get enrichments. So, the state considers a total of 46% of the entering Kindergarteners were ready.

That means 54% were not ready for Kindergarten, which agrees with the percentage the governor cites in his blog.

But, as the late Paul Harvey used to point out, there is a “rest” to this story, and the next two rows of data in the table have that information.

The middle line of data covers entering Kindergarteners who previously had attended the state-funded preschool program. Even though they attended the state’s official program, only 46% of them were ready!

The last row of data covers the federally funded Head Start program’s results. Only 43% of these students were ready even with enrichments.

The table shows actual results for real preschool programs operating right now. These results provide NO indication that putting every child into preschool is going to perform miracles. In fact, performance of the two main preschool options in Kentucky doesn’t look any better than the overall performance that includes students coming in from other options such as parent-funded child care, education in the home, or other, unidentified options.

Shouldn’t we figure out how to really do preschool right, first, before we spend a lot more money on it? Otherwise, both students and the taxpayers will be the ones winding up with the real sack of coal.