President Obama made it a point to talk about his plan for increasing access to pre-school initiatives for states across the nation as part of educational reform. State-funded pre-school has been a long-time topic of interest and emphasis for democrats over the years.

“However, more recently, the idea of government funded pre-school programs have become a bipartisan issue with red states such as Oklahoma and Georgia being seen as the model for providing opportunity and access for this educational endeavor.”

Being the skeptic that I am (well can sometimes be), I wonder about the source of the change of heart? Is it because they finally realize that providing access to pre-school gives many underprivileged children the opportunity to be on a leveled educational playing field? (AKA, part of the push for educational quality reform). Or, do they feel that it provides a good educational foundation giving children the opportunity to begin learning necessary educational and social skills from a young age? Or, dare I say it, is there some sort of hidden agenda involved?

As an educational professional I can see how important pre-school (particularly pre-kindergarten and head start) programs are and the benefit they would bring to many young people. I am not sure if this idea of “universal pre-kindergarten” will actually work out for us, but I am happy that many elected officials (regardless of political party) are making strides in providing more funding and programs to benefit the masses.