Show where the pre-K money will go

ACCUSING YOUR opponents of racism is a sure sign that you’ve lost the argument. Allen Sánchez of the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops had no argument to begin with: just a lavish advertising budget and a vague promise that a pot of money for early childhood education will solve New Mexico’s problems. First he thought we were fools, and now he thinks we are racists.

Practically everyone thinks early education is a good idea. I certainly do. Most of us would support spending tax dollars on a well-organized program that has a good chance of success. But we have yet to see a coherent plan beyond raining money on a mixedbag of school districts.

New Mexico already spends more than $50 million a year on early childhood education. What results have existing programs achieved? Are school districts with Pre-K programs promoting fewer illiterate kids to fourth grade? Show us the data and explain how a statewide program will be accountable for results.

Early childhood education will not help children who do not show up. Our state’s high truancy rates are higher among disadvantaged families and highest for kindergarten. Parents who decline to send their kids to school are unlikely to send them to Pre-K.

Unless there’s a mechanism to ensure participation, such as tying welfare benefits to attendance, early education could become a middle-class entitlement that fails to reach the families who need it most. Some might call that racist.

Early childhood education can play a vital role in lifting people out of poverty, but there’s a limit to how much government programs can accomplish. New Mexico needs an institution with the moral authority to persuade parents to send their children to school, keep them there until they graduate, and dissuade teens from having children out of wedlock. That’s what churches used to do before they got into politics.

JAMES A. MCCLURE

Albuquerque