San Jose Mercury News, December 15, 2005

If Santa Clara County had universal preschool for 4-year-olds, the county would eventually wind up with 222 fewer high school dropouts a year. About 300 fewer children a year would have to repeat a grade, and 202 fewer students would need special education classes, according to a report released Thursday by the Rand Corp.

The latest study builds on a Rand report released in March, which estimated that for every dollar California spends on preschool, the state will get back $2.62 -- in reduced crime costs, lower remedial education costs and greater tax revenue from productive workers.

The findings are certain to bolster some of the main arguments of advocates of the Preschool for All Act headed for the June 2006 ballot. Proponents of preschool have long maintained that it is an investment that reaps enormous benefits.

Statewide, Rand's cost-benefit analysis predicts that California would have 10,000 fewer high school dropouts and 7,300 fewer children involved in the juvenile court system. The benefits of a universal preschool program are expected to be greatest in Los Angeles County, because of its sheer size and number of low-income children.

The Rand study was funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation of Los Altos, which supports universal preschool. The study heavily relies on previous research by Arthur Reynolds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In 2001, Reynolds and his colleagues conducted a landmark cost-benefit analysis of a preschool for low-income children in Chicago. Karoly used the Chicago research to derive California estimates.

Critics, including researchers at Princeton University and the Brookings Institution, have raised concerns about the Chicago Child-Parent Centers study, in part because of its small sample size. Others, including Lance Izumi of the Pacific Research Institute, question whether a targeted, relatively small Chicago study can be adequately extrapolated for a state as large, and as diverse, as California.

Preschool for All initiative sponsor Rob Reiner and supporters in the business community regularly make the argument that spending on preschool saves the state money and is key if California is to remain competitive in a global economy.

Opponents argue that universal preschool would be far more expensive to implement than advocates admit and question whether California's beleaguered K-12 education system is equipped to expand to an earlier grade.

Contact Dana Hull at dhull@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-2706.