Did you have to care for a hamster in your preschool class? Line-up? Clean up? Share?

According to this NPR Planet Money podcast preschool probably provides irreplaceable job training.  Taking place during a developmental window that does not reappear, the “soft learning” we get as 3 and 4-year olds shapes our success as adults. This academic study provides the specifics.

And yet, here and here, you can see the budget cuts for government funded pre-school programs.

The Economic Lesson

It is all about cost. The cost of any decision is the alternative you rejected. Choosing is refusing.

An Economic Question: Why might cutting a preschool program have a lower cost for a politician than for society?