Scholar Douglas J. Besharov

In her Christmas 2007 campaign ad, Hillary Clinton was shown arranging presents labeled "Universal Health Care," "Alternative Energy," "Bring Troops Home," and "Middle-Class Tax Breaks." She then paused, looking somewhat puzzled, before delivering the punch line: "Where did I put universal pre-K?"

"Universal pre-K" has become a politically popular campaign cause. Clinton is no longer a candidate, of course, but Barack Obama has promised an ambitious pre-kindergarten agenda; John McCain's advisers have hinted that he will do the same. And why not? The rhetoric surrounding pre­K programs is quite extraordinary: They close the achievement gap between low-income children and their more affluent peers; they prepare all children, including middle-income children, for school; and they provide financial relief to working mothers who have been paying for child care. . . .

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Douglas J. Besharov is the Joseph J. and Violet Jacobs Scholar in Social Welfare Studies at AEI. Douglas M. Call is a research associate at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy.