Do Investments in Universal Early Education Pay Off? Long-term Effects of Introducing Kindergartens into Public Schools

Abstract

In the 1960s and 1970s, many states introduced grants for school districts offering kindergarten programs. This paper exploits the staggered timing of these initiatives to estimate the long-term effects of a large public investment in universal early education. I find that white children aged five after the typical state reform were less likely to be high school dropouts and had lower institutionalization rates as adults. I rule out similar positive effects for blacks, despite comparable increases in their enrollment in public kindergartens in response to the initiatives. The explanation for this finding that receives most empirical support is that state funding for kindergarten crowded out participation in federally-funded early education among the poorest five year olds.This paper examines the consequences of a series of state interventions to introduce kindergartens into public schools. In the 1960s and 1970s, many states, particularly in the Southern and Western parts of the country, for the first time began offering grants to school districts operating kindergarten programs. Heavy reliance of school revenues on state support in these states and strong latent demand combined to generate quick take-up of these new funds. This is suggested by Figure I, which plots trends in the fraction of school districts with kindergarten programs and the ratio of kindergarten to first grade enrollment in these "treated" states and elsewhere in the country. My formal empirical analysis implies that within only two years of state funding, school districts in the typical state were 21 percentage points more likely to offer kindergarten and public school kindergarten enrollment rates 33 percentage points higher.These interventions present an unusual opportunity to estimate the long-term effects of a large state investment in universal preschool education.My identification strategy takes advantage of the staggered timing of the funding initiatives across treated states, along with the fact that children attend kindergarten at age five.

Universal Child Care, Maternal Employment, and Children’s Long-Run Outcomes: Evidence from the US Lanham Act of 1940

“…In the United States, Herbst andTekin (2012, 2016) estimate the short-and medium-run impact of the CCDF, a subsidy program restricted to the working poor, while a large number of studies examine the short-and medium-run impact of pre-kindergarten programs, only some of which are universal (e.g., Gormley and Gayer 2005;Fitzpatrick 2008;Barnett et al 2013;Cascio and Schanzenbach 2013;Weiland and Yoshikawa 2013). In addition, a noteworthy paper by Cascio (2009a), which estimates the long-run impact of kindergarten introduction in the United States, finds some positive effects for white adults but not for black adults.…”

“…Regarding DD studies, Baker, Gruber, and Milligan (2008) and Lefebvre and Merrigan (2008) evaluate the introduction of universal child care in Quebec, Canada, while Havnes and Mogstad (2011a) examine Norway's universal program. United States-based DD studies include Cascio and Schanzenbach's (2013) analysis of universal pre-kindergarten programs in Oklahoma and Georgia, as well as Cascio's (2009b) paper on the introduction of kindergartens throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Regarding the latter design, Gelbach (2002) and Fitzpatrick (2012) use children's quarter-of-birth in the 1980 and 2000 Censuses, respectively, to instrument for kindergarten participation, while Fitzpatrick (2010) uses the discontinuity created by age-eligibility cut-offs to analyze the Georgia and Oklahoma pre-kindergarten programs.…”

The effects of early tracking on student performance: Evidence from a school reform in Bavaria

“…Failure to be on grade-for-age has already been used as an indicator of grade repetition and, more generally, of low performance (see, e.g., Oreopoulos, Page, and Stevens, 2006;Dahl and Moretti, 2008;Cascio, 2009). In Germany, students have to repeat a grade if certain subject grades (especially in the main subjects math and German) are below a pre-defined cutoff.…”

Who gets to look nice and who gets to play? Effects of child gender on household expenditures

“…Focusing on expenditure patterns may provide further clues in understanding the mechanisms behind the already-identified effects on parental outcomes. If there is differential treatment of boys and girls by their parents, then it should be reflected in the way households allocate their resources, which is of particular importance in the light of the growing evidence on the role of early interventions (Blau and Currie 2006;Cascio 2009;Almond and Currie 2011;Carneiro and Ginja 2014) and investment in children in the form of prenatal care, vaccinations or medical care (Aizer 2003;Figlio et al 2009;Levine and Schanzenbach 2009). Thus, differential levels of expenditure related to the child's human capital development or on items that may solidify gender stereotypes could have long-term consequences for children's outcomes in the future.…”