Those who argue against the expansion of tuition-free prekindergarten programs based on the belief that poor and/or minority families prefer not to send their children to prekindergarten should check out the findings from this study out of the University of Albany, SUNY.

The researchers show that children in newcomer families (defined as having at least one immigrant among them) are less likely to attend prekindergarten than children in which all members of the family are born in the U.S. That’s not news—it was in the 2000 Census. What’s news is that children in Mexico (the country of origin of 40 percent of children in newcomer families) attend preschool at a rate of 85 percent, while children in newcomer families in the U.S. attend preschool at a rate of 55 percent, and children in all-U.S.-born families attend preschool at a rate of 71 percent.  The difference? Preschool is free in Mexico; for the most part, it is not in the U.S.

What to do to level the playing field? The researchers recommend:

• Ensure availability and access to tuition-free preschool for newcomer families;
• Examine the effectiveness of language development programs in preschool;
• Facilitate parental involvement of immigrant parents; and
• Provide literacy programs that target parents as well as their preschool students.