Our Opinion: Alabama could teach Massachusetts a thing or two about pre-K – Berkshire Eagle
Massachusetts has long prided itself on its high educational standards — a pride that is often but not always justified. In the case of critically important preschool education, the Bay State could learn a few lessons from Alabama, as counterintuitive as that might sound.
In a recent Boston Globe story, the pre-K failings of Massachusetts were cast in sharp relief by the successes of Alabama over the past decade. Most notably, Alabama’s public pre-K program is free to all students. In Massachusetts, where public preschool programs are scarce and seats hard to find, the cost for one year of private preschool is just under $15,000, the second highest in the nation. This is unaffordable for low-income families and many middle-class families, putting their children at a disadvantage to those of wealthier parents entering kindergarten.