Sunday, August 26, 2007

Fred Hiatt is excited by Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's "pragmatic and principled" approach to expanding government-run preschool programs gradually ["Pre-K Pragmatism," op-ed, Aug. 20]. Referring to universal pre-kindergarten education's costs, he wrote: "Not cheap, needless to say."

Yet if we think preschool is expensive now, wait until it gets swallowed by the public education bureaucracy; the U.S. Education Department reports that spending per pupil on public education from kindergarten through 12th grade nearly doubled between 1970 and 1995. Since then it has increased another 25 percent. Surely the costs of preschool will also spike.

Why not provide a preschool tuition voucher system instead, so parents can decide, based on quality and cost, where to send their children?

PHIL BRAND

Director of Education Watch

Capital Research Center

Washington