Annotation+1


 * How Universal Pre-K Could Redistribute Wealth Right Now **


 *  Full citation? **

Reed, Betsy. "How Universal Pre-K Could Redistribute Wealth Right Now." Moyers & Company. Public Affairs Television Inc., 13 Feb. 2014. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.


 * Where are the author/s located, what are their backgrounds and what kinds of expertise do they have? **

Betsy Reed is the executive editor of The Nation, co-edited the book Going Rogue: Sarah Palin-An American Nightmare, as well as the editor of Unnatural Disaster: The Nation on Hurricane Katrina which is a collection of the articles published by the Nation on the storm and the aftermath.


 * List of at least three details or examples from the text that point to something important about culture, education and/or the challenge of environmental sustainability in the United States. **

The first thing I found interesting is how Reed starts off the article by comparing three separate politicians (de Blasio, Cuomo, and Obama) and their approaches to supporting universal pre-kindergarten education.

“The benefits of Head Start to poor children diminish after the first grade, skeptics warn. The [|long-term gains from free pre-K for all children have been oversold], they say.”

“The hope is that the boost of a good early education will vault more low-income kids into the middle class and loosen up the economic hierarchy that has ossified in this country in recent decades.”


 *  What three quotes capture the critical import of the text? **

“In this way, the de Blasio plan is less a data-driven long-term intervention in the “great divide” than an attempt to achieve wealth redistribution in the here and now, in a city that sorely needs it.”

“The economic benefits of such an investment will be felt long before any that may arise from a spike in poor kids’ future earnings. After Quebec instituted a low-cost universal childcare program, so many women entered the workforce that [|the province enjoyed a $5 billion rise in GDP in 2008]. And the program more than paid for itself in tax revenues.”

“But universal pre-K and childcare can most powerfully address both inequality and mobility if these programs are financed by an increase in taxes on those who can most easily afford to pay a little more. Done right, this could be a model of sound economics as well as economic justice.”

 The main argument is supporting de Blasio’s plan for universal pre-kindergarten, not necessarily based on disputed data that kids who start in preschool will be more successful throughout college level education, but also because providing low income families the ability to put their children in preschool at no-cost will allow more opportunities for the parents, which results in larger tax gain for the city based on their ability to work more, as well as lessen the economic gap between the lower and upper class.
 * What is the main argument of the text? **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The article brings up one study that if the pre-k slots are high quality they will have 7-10% returns on every dollar, and that the children will have higher life-long earnings.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Describe at least three ways that the main argument is supported. **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">It talks about how the big problem in New York City is the growing gap between the rich and poor, and how this will help that problem.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I really appreciated the part where they bring up the results produced by Quebec’s low-cost universal childcare, which created a $5 billion rise in GDP for the province in 2008.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The Quebec quote was most persuasive, the part about pre-K not necessarily helping children in the long term was least persuasive because it was not supported by any evidence directly in the article.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">What parts of the argument did you find most and least persuasive, and why? **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">What kinds of corrective action are suggested by the text (either overt or implied)?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The article suggests that the $973/year given from the rich to the poor to support the universal child care could make a big difference.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">This article relates widely to education, and not so much sustainability. But it does make me think about how bringing sustainability and science into the classroom can help us produce a generation committed to changing the world in that way, and reforms to the education system can only support this.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Explain how the argument and evidence in the text relates to our effort to conceptualize, design and deliver EcoEd? **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I’d like to look into the details more, I had heard before that pre-K helps children learn better in elementary school, which helps in middle then high school, which helps in college. But this article suggests that is not necessarily true. It does say without doubt that pre-k will better society through unsuspecting ways, and I would like to find out what all of the influencing factors and potential results would be. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">What additional information has this text compelled you to seek out? (Describe what you learned in a couple of sentences, providing at least two supporting references). **