RUSH: Judy in Tampa, you’re next on Open Line Friday. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Great to talk to you. I’m a big fan.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: But I kind of did a double-take. I don’t know if it was this week or last week when you were talking about preschool, universal preschool initiative that I think Hillary was pushing?
RUSH: Yeah, yeah.
CALLER: And that it was indoctrination, and that may be the case with the universal model, but I think you also said it was like baby-sitting, and preschool, there’s nothing to back up that there’s any advantage with preschool, and actually there is. There are studies —
RUSH: We’re talking four-year-olds here.
CALLER: Excuse me?
RUSH: We’re talking four-year-olds.
CALLER: Yes, but, you know, there is research to say that 85% of social, intellectual, and psychological development occurs before the age of five.
RUSH: Whose research?
CALLER: Well, I don’t have it, but I could get it for you if you want it. I can’t do it right this minute.
RUSH: Of course not.
CALLER: But based on that, there have been longitudinal studies that show that — what I’m trying to get at here is there’s another way of looking at this, and there is a business case for supporting pre-K not for a universal model, which I agree with you can be very problematic —
RUSH: Well, but that’s what we were talking about.
CALLER: Oh, okay.
RUSH: And that’s what Hillary wants. Add another year of school. Look, the problem is not that we’re not taking care of our four-year-olds right, it’s by the time they get to the second, third grade, too many can’t read and so what we’re going to do instead of fix it, ‘Oh, let’s add another year of school, and let’s put the federal government in charge of it.’ I use baby-sitting as a means of sort of in a flippant away, attacking this, because they want to get hold of these kids and indoctrinate them, because exactly your research is exactly right, that’s precisely when all kinds of psychological and intellectual development is taking place that we don’t see.
CALLER: Yeah. But could I tell you this, that there is another business case for this, and businesses are wanting to get involved in helping disadvantaged kids who are not making it to the school system, not making it into the workforce, they’re not contributing to the tax base, they’re becoming criminals. There’s a longitudinal study, a couple of them, that are very respected now showing high quality pre-K for disadvantaged kids does have very good —
RUSH: I know, Mrs. Clinton cited that —
CALLER: She cited it —
RUSH: Mrs. Clinton cites it, you know, that’s —
CALLER: But why let her use the study? Why not use the study more for a business case and for a tax base case. There are business interests. Why let her get the issue?
RUSH: The reason why is because even if it’s thought by experts, quote, unquote, that doing something like this would be food for these four-year-olds, it ain’t going to be good if the feds run it. It isn’t going to be good if Hillary Clinton’s federal government runs it, and that was my point.
CALLER: Okay, well, then what I’m saying is —
RUSH: What are the parents for, for crying out loud?
CALLER: Okay, but then what I’m saying is why let Hillary take this issue? There are business owners, there’s a big movement among businesses to work with these initiatives to target just —
RUSH: Well hey, hey, hey — commercial break, commercial break, hang on. We’ll be right back with you.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We go back to Judy in Tampa. Judy, just so you don’t misunderstand me on this, I don’t have any agreement that daycare and pre-K and all it is can help disadvantaged kids, to get them into elementary schools, so that by the time the kid enters a public school, he can’t read add grade level; by the name of he reaches eighth grade he gets worse in high school and we end up having remedial classes in college. What’s the difference at age four and age five when we start in kindergarten? The problem is not there. The problem is happening later on.
CALLER: So the thing is the problems happen later on because they don’t get the good foundation, and it isn’t just getting remediation in college. It’s getting more criminal activity. It’s getting people who are not making any money, not getting into the workforce. There’s more and more competition. These days kids don’t have a chance and Head Start is not cutting it. There’s getting to be more and more emphasis on pre-K. It’s not going away.
RUSH: You’re missing the whole point. I’ll accept your premise. Whatever good is done in pre-K — four, five years of age — is going to be undone by the way the public schools are run. It’s not my opinion here. It’s happening. The dropout rate is sky high, particularly among Hispanics and African-Americans in New York and Los Angeles. You could start with them at another age two!
CALLER: But these kids who are dropping out have not had pre-K advantage, as far as I know, or have they?
RUSH: It wouldn’t matter. You can have all the advantages — this is my theory.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: You can have all the advantage in the world at age four. By the time they get in the second and third grade, that’s when it starts falling apart, for some reason.
CALLER: There are studies saying that it doesn’t fall apart. That’s what I’m saying. What I’m saying is, it’s worth looking into, and what I’m saying is why not…?
RUSH: How can there be studies that say it doesn’t fall apart when we haven’t done it?
CALLER: Well, they have done it. I mean, they have done it on a small scale, and the thing is, it’s been —
RUSH: So it’s anecdotal. This is how stuff gets rammed down our throats.
CALLER: It’s not anecdotal.
RUSH: This is how tax increases and expanded government get rammed down our throat, and the dirty little insinuation here is that parents can’t do this —
CALLER: Well…
RUSH: Only trained specialists from your friendly government can handle something this major.
CALLER: What I’m saying is this isn’t going away, and if you let Hillary take this, you’re more likely — instead of taking this, looking at it seriously and try to turn it into more of a business model —
RUSH: Sadly, it isn’t going away, precisely because more people in this country don’t have the guts to stand up and accept their own responsibilities as parents. They’re too eager to farm it off and do look at it as baby-sitting, and that is what I meant. Government will take and grab every aspect of life it can, if you let them. I know you keep talking about businesses do this and businesses having an interest in this. Well, let’s let businesses run all the schools, then. Let’s just turn the whole thing over to the private sector! Let’s do that. I guarantee the results will be better than what we’re getting now on an overall basis. I’m glad you called. Thanks much for holding through the break.