My must read of the day is "Fact Checking the 2014 State of the Union address," by Glenn Kessler in the Washington Post:
A State of the Union address is often difficult to fact-check, no matter who is president. The speech is a product of many hands and is carefully vetted, so major errors of fact are relatively rare. But State of the Union addresses often are very political speeches, an argument for the president’s policies, so context is sometimes missing.
One point that is questionable, but not discussed in Kessler’s piece, came when Obama discussed the Head Start program.
"Research shows that one of the best investments we can make in a child's life is high-quality early education," Obama noted.
"Last year, I asked this Congress to help states make high-quality pre-K available to every 4-year-old. And as a parent as well as a president, I repeat that request tonight. … And as Congress decides what it's going to do, I'm going to pull together a coalition of elected officials, business leaders, and philanthropists willing to help more kids access the high-quality pre-K that they need. It is right for America. We need to get this done."
Do we? The research on Head Start is actually somewhat inconclusive.
The Department of Health and Human Services produced an impact study in 2010 that evaluated the "key outcomes of development and learning" of children involved in the program.
The study collected data from 2002 to 2006, "following children from program application through the spring of their 1st grade year."
What did they find? A "pattern of limited cognitive impacts" as those children moved through their elementary years.
The HHS follow up to the study reiterated that point, finding there was "little evidence of systematic differences in children’s elementary school experiences through 3rd grade, between children provided access to Head Start and their counterparts in the control group."
Keep in mind this data is from the agency that runs Head Start, a program that began in 1960s.
I have always cared deeply about education. Half of my resume is comprised of teaching internships. My mom was a teacher. Head Start sounds like a great idea, but just because you want something to work doesn’t mean it will.