If you don't have decent public education, children are again not going to reach their potential. So pay for this stuff and maybe they'll be able to pay into Social Security to pay into Social Security for you and me.

I heard a fantastic podcast from Planet Money last week, about the returns on putting kids in preschool. Two sets of kids from the same neighborhood, born into the same socioeconomic circumstances: one set goes to pre-school where they get socialized, learn their letters, get read to, etc. The other set doesn't. The rest of their educational experience is roughly the same.

Twenty years after the fact, the difference between the two sets of kids is clear. The pre-school kids are significantly more likely to have finished high school or college, significantly less likely to be on unemployment or welfare, to have gotten pregnant as a teenager, to have gotten arrested. Pre-school kids earn more over their lives, pay back more into social security, produce more for society.

It was an amazing report, because the differences were so clear, and the other factors were controlled for. The difference for these lower-income kids was the pre-school.

And did you hear the TAL about sneaking universal pre-K into Oklahoma? It was amazing.

And did you hear the TAL about sneaking universal pre-K into Oklahoma? It was amazing.

No, I keep unsubscribing from TAL because they get backed up and at an hour each, they're too intimidating for me to keep up with.

So I get this email from an acquaintance I have not heard from for awhile. Note: I am not in New York.

Trip here was really fast! But I'll go to Lincoln Center anyway. And I'll meet you at Shun Lee

My reactions in order:

1. Ooh, that sounds like a nice meal.

2. Damn, I bet that email is not for me.

One of the things that stunned me about Georgia when I moved there was the state commitment to universal preK. It got cut back a bit in the recent budget crunch, and I think is now only 160 days and a shorter day, but anyone who wants preK can go, free. Good investment, Georgia!

(And I totally saw it making a huge difference in how well kids adapted to K, for the low-income kids at our school.)

Here! [link] I like it because it's about a conservative guy who sees the value in investing in kids.

Jesse, NICE and thank you. I am actually on a quest lately to read actual conservatives who don't identify as Tea Party and your link is helpful.

And speaking of links, I searched high and low and all over for a really good non-partisan, easy-to-understand layout of what the government spends money on. I wanted to educate myself. And then I ended up writing a bit of an essay and linking to it on the Book of Face.

[link]

So one of the comments that my super-religious surrogate sister made about the link:

I'm not familiar with the link you provided, but it is endorsed by the VP, WaPo, and NYT, may not be as objective a reports as could be.

So my question is, is there a better link? Not a rhetorical question. I am asking Le Hivemind.

Math has a liberal bias.

In fairness to the people with WIC buying not-allowed things, it is super complicated. So, for example, you have to have either the exact amount or less of what is on the check-- so if they say 15oz of cereal, but all the cereal comes in 16 oz containers, you have to get the 12 oz. And then it is even more complicated, because there are only particular cereals you can get. And when I was doing it, it wasn't in the computer, the cashier had to read the back of the WIC check to see if the particular cereal was eligible. Very rarely did I see people seeming to attempt to 'scam' their WIC check.

Foodstamps, I did a little bit, but it was mostly just this one vietnam vet who had a traumatic brain injury. At the time we gave back actual change for anything less than a dollar, so he would come in and buy a 25 cent item, and take the change repeatedly, until he had enough cash to buy cigarettes.

Almost all the scam based things I saw working in retail and/or grocery had to do with returning items for cash, whether they were stolen items or whether the ticket was altered.

java,

from their about page:

Our materials are used by policymakers and non-profit organizations across the political spectrum, and by journalists from a wide variety of TV, radio, print, and online outlets.

it likely will not convince your sister, but I don't see a partisan purpose there.