25. Getting Preschool Education Right

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/opinion/getting-obamas-preschool-education-plan-right.html?hp

On February 15^th, an article was published on The New York Times regarding President Obama’s plan to invest on and improve preschool education. The author introduces the topic by saying how Obama’s project has received a lot of criticism from the Republicans.  He then cites the problems with strategies that try to improve preschool education such as the effectiveness of the project and the costs of these programs. He also says what these programs should look like by explaining the effectiveness of a previous project conducted in the 1960s. After that, the author says what Obama has done to start this initiative, giving details on the program such as its range (“4-year-olds from families at or below 200 percent of the poverty level”) and the source of funds (“cost-sharing partnership with the states”). The author seems to support the president’s project by emphasizing on its upsides and criticizing those who object right out of the gate to this program.

The author’s purpose was to inform his readers and persuade them to agree with his belief that the project to invest on preschool education is something worth supporting. He creates some common ground with people who disagree with the program by talking about the difficulties in designing an effective education plan and compares them to one that worked really well in the past. He provides the readers with information regarding the current progress in the issue and details about the project itself. However, he does not assure the credibility of his sources, but only says “officials have said”, “preschool researchers say”, “Countless studies have found”. In order to persuade a stronger audience, more statistics and their origins would be necessary.