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Publicly funded preschool?

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New Hampshire does not currently offer public funding for preschool except for children with special needs requiring early educational intervention. This leaves it up to individual towns to decide if they wish to offer a public preschool option.

Some towns offer fully-funded public preschool while others may fully fund tuition for low-income families or those with special needs, offering a partially subsidized tuition rate to other families.

Advocates of public preschool argue that quality early childhood education has been shown to improve academic performance down the road, helping to close the ‘achievement gap’ between children of poor and affluent families. They note that private preschool in New Hampshire is more expensive than in other parts of the country, and can be beyond the reach of some families.

Opponents question whether the benefits of preschool are worth the investment, noting that many residents already struggle with high property taxes. They note that the federally funded Head Start program already covers at-risk children from low income families.

UPDATE: Read our Citizen Voices℠ report and find out where New Hampshire stands on this issue.

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