President Barack Obama visited an early education center in Decatur, Ga., Thursday to make his case for dramatically expanding pre-school access. After sharing a classroom with 16 young children -- one of whom asked, "Are you our teacher?" -- Obama elaborated on his State of the Union plan, saying it would give pre-K to every single American child.
"Let's make it a national priority to give every child access to a high-quality early education," Obama said Thursday. "Let's give our kids that chance." A brightly colored banner behind the audience read, "PRESCHOOL FOR ALL."
But that's not exactly what the White House's plan delivers.
"The White House pre-K plan is very different from the signal the president sent in the State of the Union and the signal he's sending by visiting Georgia," Russ Whitehurst, a former federal education official who heads the Brooking Institution's education program, told The Huffington Post.
The Obama administration has billed this plan as "universal pre-Kindergarten," using the language of legions of advocates who argue that 'pre-K for all' is the best long-term economic investment America can make. But in reality, the White House plan is much more targeted to poor kids.
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