I’m guessing that there is a pretty good correlation between kids whose families can afford $30K for preschool and kids who make good money as adults.

Also, there is no standard curriculum for comparison; my wife and I sent our kids to a co-op pre-school that just worked on kids playing together and learning to listen to other kids and wait their turn and help each other.

Finally (this anecdote from my Mom, who was listening in on my wife and I discussing preschool), the last time she helped me with reading a book was when I was three. What good is $30K preschool education to a kid who is already educating himself?

Finally finally, the Finns have the best educated kids on the planet, and they don’t even require schooling until age 7; and when they do go to school, they require at least 75 minutes of recess per day.

Pre-K education? Humbug!

I suspect what’s actually going on here is competition to get into magnet schools, schools for the gifted, and the like. Simply being familiar with the school as a place and an institution can make a big difference on scores on such examinations, as can doing the “red shirt” thing (even 6 months makes a big deal on development and evaluation if you’re talking 5-8 year olds).

My wife and several of her friends have a weekly pre-school coop thing that they do with their 1-4 year olds, which I suppose may evolve into something like the Pre-K being talked about here, although with a decidedly more homeschooling or unschooling bent to it.