Last night, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., went into enemy territory to promote his new book, Now or Never: Saving American from Economic Collapse, on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Stewart was no fan of the book and after some initial joking about the Republican primary in South Carolina, Stewart got to his main objection to the book:
DeMint responded: “Preschool is important and there are some Head Start programs that have done well. But if you look at a total analysis of the program there is a whole lot of waste and ineffectiveness there.”
So who is right? DeMint or Stewart? There has been only one scientific study with rigorous experimental design done on Head Start’s long-term results. It was released by the U.S. Department of Health and Humans Services in 2010. What did it find? The Heritage Foundation’s David Muhlhausen reported at the time:
Or, as liberal columnist Joel Klein put it: “Head Start simply does not work.”
As Ronald Reagan liked to say, “Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”
