If preschools are to level the social class playing field, they must prevent four year old children and their teachers from tilting it

The 2016 budget, announced by President Obama last week, includes a push for universal preschool, which would focus on children from poor and middle-income families. While Jessi Streib welcomes the President’s proposal, she warns that it may end up reinforcing the inequality and class privileges it is attempting to prevent. Drawing on her research observing high quality preschools, she argues that teaching techniques favor children from privileged backgrounds with large vocabularies. For Obama’s pre-K plan to be effective, school practices which benefit the privileged must be addressed as well.