Democrat Millie Hamner has regurgitated her bill from last year and introduced the Early Childhood Education Expansion Bill (aka HB13-1117), which starts by asking legislators to pledge allegiance to the efficacy of government programs. According to the bill summary:

“Section 1 of the bill states the general assembly’s recognition that it is in the state’s best interest for a specific office within the department of human services (department) to administer early childhood programs.”

This is such odd phrasing since just a week ago, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released the latest Head Start Impact Study.  And, the results aren’t good.  Head Start is one of the most prominent government-run early childhood programs.  In fact, taxpayers have paid over $180 billion into the program since it’s inception in 1965.  According to Fox News:

“According to the congressionally-mandated report, Head Start has little to no impact on cognitive, social-emotional, health, or parenting practices of its participants. In fact, on a few measures, access to the program actually produced negative effects.”

So, before taxpayers even get to the “meat and potatoes” of the legislation, it start with a faulty premise – that the government is the best administrator of early childhood programs.  While opponents and proponents of this faulty legislation can argue back and forth, the real losers of this bill are the children who could benefit from an effective early childhood education program.  We’re guessing efficacy increases as government interference decreases.