As States Tackle Poverty, Preschool Gets High Marks

 
I haven't looked at the data closely enough to have an informed opinion on whether pre-K, whether means-tested or truly universal, is the highest use of scarce dollars:

In Washington and statehouses across the country,  preschool is moving to the head of the class.
 

Florida and Oklahoma are among the states that  have started providing free preschool for any 4-year-old whose parents want  it. Illinois and New York plan to do the same. Hillary Rodham Clinton wants to  spend $15 billion over five years on universal preschool funding. Federal  Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke calls preschool one cure for  inequality.
 <http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-PreKchrtbk0707.html>   

The movement represents one of the most  significant expansions in public education in the 90 years since World War I,  when kindergarten first became standard in American schools. It has taken off  as politicians look for relatively inexpensive ways to tackle the growing  rich-poor gap in the U.S. They have found spending on children is usually an  easy sell.

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GROWING UP
As States Tackle Poverty, Preschool Gets High Marks
New Lobbying Strategy Fuels National Move For Universal Classes
By DEBORAH SOLOMON
August 9, 2007; Page A1
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118660878464892191.html

In Washington and statehouses across the country, preschool is moving to the head of the class.
Florida and Oklahoma are among the states that have started providing free preschool for any 4-year-old whose parents want it. Illinois and New York plan to do the same. Hillary Rodham Clinton wants to spend $15 billion over five years on universal preschool funding. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke calls preschool one cure for inequality.