With Rob Reiner’s current push for universal preschool, it bears mentioning that our early childhood educators have an abhorrently low education rate themselves.  Over the last twenty years, the percentage of preschool teachers with four year college degrees has declined as the percentage with high school diplomas and some college has increased.  This represents a decrease in educational requirements to become an early childhood educator, and I’m struggling to understand how we can claim such extreme benefits with a workforce in place that clearly needs more educating before they are ready to teach. 

Since preschool is all the rage, it bears examining what happens in the classrooms of these facilities, and who is running the show.  This article from the Economic Policy Institute shares some insightful and scary data on the educational requirements of early childhood educators.  The message here is to make sure you ask hard questions about the teachers in any preschool, and fully understand their experience and education levels as you make your choice.  Also, in most counties, you can call and talk to the person who conducts visits to find out if the school has had any problems, even if they were rectified.  Mr. Reiner is right...preschool is very important, and that makes it crucial for us parents to find out as much as we can about the educators.