Obama's Plan to Expand Pre-K Education Unveiled

Focus on low- and middle-income families

President Obama announced during his State of the Union address that he wanted to "make high-quality preschool available to every child in America." On Thursday, details of the plan emerged. The proposal asks that federal government provide matching dollars to states to provide public preschool slots for every 4-year-old who comes from a low- or moderate-income family that earns up to 200 percent of the poverty level. The plan also proposes that Early Head Start (a program designed to prepare low-income kids for school) is expanded to childcare for infants and toddlers, too. Though nearly 1.1 million students across the country are enrolled in federally financed Head Start programs and others attend private preschools, that still leaves millions of children on the sidelines who advocates of the plan say may not have the advantages of daily bedtime stories, music lessons and counting games at home. (NY Times)

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