Expanding the number of children required to attend school increases state education costs and thereby may mean an increase in taxes. Such an instant expansion of the student population requires the hiring of more teachers, more truant officers, and more administrative staff. While the change in some school districts may be negligible, the change to the combined school districts of a state would produce a significant impact on state revenues.
When a lowering of compulsory attendance age was considered in Alabama in 1991, the Alabama Legislative Fiscal Offices estimated the cost of the change to be at least $4.7 million per year.10 In 1998, when Connecticut considered lowering its compulsory attendance age, a state department of education representative testified that one town (Enfield, CT) would require 13 new classrooms while another (Meridian, CT) would need 20 additional classrooms.11
Also consider Head Start, a federal program that began providing services in 1965 with an enrollment of 561,000 children and a budget of just over $96 million. By 2000, the enrollment had only grown to 860,000 children, but the budget had increased dramatically, costing taxpayers over $5 billion dollars. That is a 5,108% growth rate in spending with only a 53% increase in enrollment.
The most important goal of any education program is that children be educated. Studies of Head Start, however, demonstrate that early education produces no apparent academic benefits. In its early years, extensive studies were undertaken to prove Head Start worked. But the opposite turned out to be true. In 1969, the Westinghouse Learning Corporation found no difference in the behavior and educational achievement between Head Start and other underclass children.
Sixteen years later, the CRS Synthesis Project study, commissioned by HHS, came to the same conclusion. Although children showed “immediate gains,” by the second grade “there are no educationally meaningful differences.”12
D.C. Council member Kevin P. Chavous (D-Ward 7) plans to introduce a bill today that would lower from 5 to 3 the age at which schooling is compulsory, part of a push among school and elected officials to expand early childhood learning. If the legislation passed, the District would be the first jurisdiction in the country to mandate school attendance or home learning for all children at such a young age, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
*Associated Press/AP Online
Since the Communism thread has morphed into a home-schooling debate, I thought I’d share some thoughts on that here. The current thread has become almost impossible to follow. There are many reasons why home schooling is becoming such a popular option for parents in the United States, among them the overall failure of the public school systems, a recognition among fly-over folk that children need parents more than they need institutions, and the growing realization that home-schooled kids are outperforming their counterparts. I could relate my own experiences, and will if anyone asks, but that would be anecdotal and so not relevant.
Additional funding of nearly $2 million will see three new early childhood education Centres of Innovation next year, Education Minister Trevor Mallard announced today. “These new centres, in addition to the six begun last year, will strengthen quality in early childhood teaching and share knowledge of what works best for New Zealand children,” Trevor Mallard said.
Bipartisan Education Reform – President Bush submitted his framework for education reform, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), three days after taking office and secured overwhelming bipartisan support less than a year later. NCLB represents the most significant overhaul of Federal education policy since 1965, when the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was passed. NCLB creates strong standards in each state for what every child should know and learn in reading and math in grades 3-8 and holds schools accountable for closing the achievement gap between students of different socio-economic backgrounds.
Washington, DC — Vice President Gore announced today that the Administration will seek an additional $128 million in the FY2000 budget to help children learn to read well.


