| Read a Post for The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics | | | | Reply to this Post | | | The WIC Sector of the Sandbox | | Posted By: Dick Schutz on October 11, 2007 | | | Had de Touqueville surveyed the Pre-K scene, he could hardly have overlooked the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program. Initiated at about the same time as Head Start, WIC currently has a budget of $5.2 billion, compared to the HS budget of $6.7 billion. WIC serves more than
8 million clients compared to the less than 1 million served by HS—under $500. compared to over $7000. per individual annually.
www.fns.usda.gov/wic/aboutwic
www2.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/hsb/about/fy2007.html
This is not the place for a comparative analysis of the two programs. However, there is more than one approach to to “The Sandbox Investment” than that promoted by “The Preschool Movement.” The movement trickles down all of the present weaknesses of the Education system to pre-K.
With an Education system that is unable to reliably deliver kids who can read and compute—very low delivery expectations, trickling down the characteristics of that system doesn't seem like the smartest thing in the world to do.
WIC and the preschool movement have evolved very differently and constitute “two different worlds.” In the interests of kids, parents, and the citizenry, the separate parallel paths would seem to merit more careful examination in Kids-First political discourse.
Dick Schutz
3RsPlus@usinter.net |
| |
