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Thursday, September 15, 2011

Middle Class Children Benefit from High-Quality Pre-K «

Middle Class Children Benefit from High-Quality Pre-K «:

Middle Class Children Benefit from High-Quality Pre-K

Photo: Kate Samp for Strategies for Children

Much of the research on the long-term effects of high-quality early education has focused on children from low-income families. What about children from middle class families? A new working paper suggests that both low-income and middle class children who attended a high-quality pre-kindergarten program will experience greater earnings as adults, and the projected increase in dollar amounts is similar for both groups of children.

In “Earnings Benefits of Tulsa’s Pre-K Program,” economist Tim Bartik of the Upjohn Institute and William T. Gormley and Shirley Adelstein of Georgetown