It’s easy for politicians to lard up budgets with poorly managed programs as long as they explain that the money is “for the children.” Dan Mitchell does a fantastic job explaining why, despite throwing a massive amount of money at children’s education, the government ends up with terrible results. Dan writes:
I haven’t written about the failure of that particular program since 2013, which is unfortunate because two of the most compelling visuals about Head Start were released in 2014.
First, this AEI research reveals that the supposed academic consensus for the program evaporates under close examination.
Second, this table from an article in National Affairs shows that the program doesn’t produce long-run benefits.
Yet these empirical results don’t seem to influence the debate. Every year, programs such as Head Start get funded because politicians only seem to care about intentions.
And positive headlines for themselves, of course. After all, we’re supposed to believe that they care about kids because they spend other people’s money on programs with nice goals.
Read more from Dan here.
Dan Mitchell on the Link Between Good Policy and Good Politics
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