Why this red state made preschool free

How Oklahoma’s universal pre-K program became a model for its progressive peers. Support our work. Become a Vox Member today: http://www.vox.com/memberships Universal pre-K, an ambitious social program usually championed by progressives, has been in place in one of the most conservative US states since 1998. Oklahoma’s universal pre-k program was just the second in the country (behind Georgia) and has since become a model for how these programs can boost school readiness, economic well-being, and community health. The story of how Oklahoma enacted this big early childhood education program involves a little bit of political mischief, and a lot of motivated educators who saw a need for high quality pre-kindergarten in the 90s, and made it happen. We went to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to hear from the people who were there at the beginning of this beloved program, and the ones carrying it forward in pre-kindergarten classrooms in Oklahoma today. Subscribe to our channel and turn on notifications (🔔) so you don't miss any videos:    / @vox   Sources and further reading: Check out your state’s progress toward preschool for all in NIEER’s 2024 “State of Preschool Yearbook” https://nieer.org/yearbook/2024 The Early Childhood Education Institute has a published a wealth of research analyzing Oklahoma’s early childhood education programs: https://www.ou.edu/tulsa/early-childh... William Gormley studied Tulsa’s pre-K program for more than 20 years for Georgetown University. This is one of many research papers he published from his time in Tulsa: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16351... This oft-cited research paper goes into the economic benefits of investing in early childhood education, from parents earning power to lower incarceration rates and dependency on expensive adult welfare programs: https://www.nber.org/papers/w33038 Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com. Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE Follow Vox on Facebook: http://goo.gl/U2g06o Or Twitter: http://goo.gl/XFrZ5H