Category Archives: Distribution of benefits

Good policies will usually not “fix everything”

Posted on July 14, 2015 by timbartik

One surprising reaction to the Kalamazoo Promise has been to try to downplay the Promise’s success by emphasizing that many problems remain in Kalamazoo despite the Promise. While this is true, it is irrelevant to whether the Kalamazoo Promise is … Continue reading →

Posted in Distribution of benefits | 2 Comments

Thinking again about earlier-age versus later-age interventions in skills development

Posted on June 30, 2015 by timbartik

The recent paper on the Kalamazoo Promise, by me and my colleagues Brad Hershbein and Marta Lachowska, found that this program, which provides up to 100% free college tuition for graduates of Kalamazoo Public Schools, increases college completion sufficiently to … Continue reading →

Posted in Distribution of benefits, Early childhood program design issues | Comments Off on Thinking again about earlier-age versus later-age interventions in skills development

Kalamazoo Promise boosts college completion by one-third

Posted on June 25, 2015 by timbartik

In a paper released on June 25, 2015, the Kalamazoo Promise college scholarship program is estimated to increase college completion by one-third.  The college completion effects of the Promise would be expected to significantly increase future earnings. Based on predicted … Continue reading →

Posted in Distribution of benefits, Economic development | 1 Comment

Increasing educational performance and reducing educational disparities is more feasible if pursued through high-productivity interventions, including but not limited to early childhood education

Posted on May 28, 2015 by timbartik

On May 27, 2015, the Upjohn Institute released a report on Michigan’s school finance system and how to reform it to improve student performance in Michigan, and lessen disparities among children in various income groups.  The lead author of the … Continue reading →

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Forum discusses universal versus targeted preschool, age 4 versus earlier age programs, and public school versus private provision of preschool

Posted on May 6, 2015 by timbartik

On May 5, I spoke at in a forum in Minnesota on issues in designing preschool programs. The forum had six speakers with diverse perspectives on how to design early childhood programs. The context for the discussion was a debate … Continue reading →

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Why preschool should be universal

Posted on May 6, 2015 by timbartik

On Tuesday, May 5, I was asked to speak at a forum in Minnesota, on why I think that preschool should be universal rather than income-targeted. Below are my prepared remarks: My main reason for arguing that publicly supported preschool … Continue reading →

Posted in Distribution of benefits, Early childhood program design issues | 1 Comment

The importance of neighborhoods for child development

Posted on May 5, 2015 by timbartik

On Monday, May 4, the New York Times gave prominent coverage to two recent papers that provide strong evidence that better neighborhoods or local areas for young children make a large difference in increasing future adult earnings and income for … Continue reading →

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Economic diversity in pre-K, peer effects, and universal versus targeted programs

Posted on May 1, 2015 by timbartik

A recent report by Jeanne Reid and Sharon Lynn Kagan of Columbia University, written for The Century Foundation, argues for greater consideration of economic diversity as a feature that helps determine quality in pre-K programs. The report documents that low-income … Continue reading →

Posted in Distribution of benefits, Early childhood program design issues | 1 Comment

Review of Robert Putnam’s new book, “Our Kids”: strong on vivid individual stories illustrating the problems; weaker on showing solutions

Posted on April 30, 2015 by timbartik

Robert Putnam’s new book, “Our Kids”, does an excellent job of telling individual stories of the American poor, and in particular recounting how their lives are affected by their experiences in childhood and adolescence.  (Robert Putnam is a political science … Continue reading →

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Head Start impacts: the importance of the counterfactual

Posted on April 14, 2015 by timbartik

Two recent research papers, by Kline and Walters, and by Feller et al., suggest that Head Start has much larger impacts when it is compared to the alternative of “no preschool”. This finding tends to increase the likelihood that Head … Continue reading →

Posted in Distribution of benefits, Early childhood program design issues, Local variation in benefits | Comments Off on Head Start impacts: the importance of the counterfactual