In his State of the Union speech two weeks ago, President Obama said he would work with the states “to make high-quality preschool available to every child in America.” At the moment, he said, “fewer than 3 in 10 four year-olds” are enrolled in such programs, noting that the cost can be significant. Although he did not make a specific proposal, President Obama implied that the solution is universal government-funded pre-K schooling. No need to worry about the expense: “every dollar we invest in high-quality early education can save more than seven dollars later on.”

Maybe. But government funding and regulation of preschools, unless very carefully designed, will be harmful to the existing preschool choices of many parents: those who desire their children to be served by faith-based institutions. If government directly funds the schools, either faith-based preschools will be excluded or they will be required to artificially separate out their religious activities and teachings from the rest of what they do. If teacher accreditation, curriculum requirements, and preschool licensing standards are not designed specifically to include faith-based options and perspectives, then this whole important segment of the current preschool network will be frozen out. These are not speculative concerns; battles over these matters have taken place in various states in which government has taken a larger role in preschool education.

Federal and state legislators who care about good early childhood education and parental responsibility in schooling–not to mention religious freedom and a vibrant civil society–will make it a top priority to ensure that any new funding or regulation does no harm to faith-based preschool education.

See also the JTA article, “Agudah wants faith-based preKs in universal program.”