As if the student-loan crisis wasn\u2019t bad enough, now there\u2019s a proposal to create a market for loans for pre-school. The idea comes from New York City Mayoral candidate Christina Quinn.<\/p>\n

Think Progress <\/a>describes the program this way:<\/p>\n

[The] pilot program will offer low-interest loans to families with children between the ages of two and four who have an annual income of $80,000 to $200,000. Parents will be able to get loans of up to $11,000 and make interest-only payments until Kindergarten. The loans will be available to 40 families in the first year.<\/p>\n

Quinn\u2019s pilot program is aimed at helping parents afford the cost of childcare, which in New York is $14,000 a year<\/a> on average, making it the least affordable state. The competition for preschool in New York City is also fierce, as there were 28,817 applicants for 19,834 slots<\/a> in 2011. In some neighborhoods, applicants for free preschool programs outnumber slots by eight to one<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The impulse to help more families get their children into early-childhood is a noble one. The value of pre-school in social, intellectual and emotional development is well-documented. And with just 28 percent of four-year-olds enrolled in state-funded pre-schools across the country, it\u2019s clear that some children are falling behind, right from the start. Access to pre-school is toughest for middle-class families, for whom the ever rising costs have become, for many, prohibitive.<\/p>\n

But student loans [maybe they\u2019d be more aptly called \u201ctoddler loans\u201d] don\u2019t seem like the answer. College loans help you get a higher education, which ostensibly yields higher lifetime income, which ostensibly makes your loans more valuable and easier to pay back. What\u2019s the up side of a toddler loan for pre-school? Not much. Yes, it could help your child attend a better quality pre-K program, but there\u2019s no direct economic payoff. Neither your kid nor you will be making more money because he\/she graduated from kindergarten. So, that toddler loan just adds to the cost of pre-school and to your overall financial liabilities.<\/p>\n

There is, of course, an obvious solution\u2014one that doesn\u2019t involve banks, interest rates more privatization of things that should be publicly funded: \u00a0Universal, state-funded pre-school.<\/p>\n

As Think Progress concludes:<\/p>\n

Instead of focusing on subsidizing loans, state governments could follow the examples of Oklahoma, Georgia, West Virginia, and others<\/a> in offering universal access to preschool. And President Obama has proposed a plan that would bring such access to all families. A universal program would not just benefit children and their parents, but it would have significant benefits<\/a> for the economy and society at large.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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