Press Release: 2019-12-06

In quotes: high-quality pre-K benefits multiple generations

In quotes: high-quality pre-K benefits multiple generations

December 6, 2019 by Alyssa Haywoode

“In 1962, 58 African-American 3- and 4-year-olds, all from poor families and likely candidates for failure in school, enrolled in Perry Preschool in Ypsilanti, Mich. This was a novel venture, and parents clamored to sign their children up.”

“By now, many of the children whose parents signed up decades ago have had children of their own. And scholars have begun asking whether advantages conferred on one generation are passed on to the next.

“The answer is a resounding yes. Public investments can break the cycle of poverty.

“The Perry preschoolers’ offspring are more likely to have graduated from high school, gone to college and found jobs, and less likely to have a criminal record than their peers whose parents lacked the same opportunity. As for Head Start, more of the second generation graduate from high school and enroll in college, and fewer become pregnant as teenagers or go to prison.”

— “How to Break the Poverty Cycle,” by David L. Kirp, The New York Times, November 27, 2019