Name: 這個紅色之州為何免費提供學前教育 (Why this red state made preschool free)
Uploaded: 2025-06-17T15:17:22.000Z
Duration: 10 min 25 s

情態副詞

In the U.S., free public school typically has 13 grades and begins with kindergarten at age 5.

在美國，免費公立學校通常有 13 個年級，從 5 歲的幼兒園開始。

It's been this way for a long time, but some say that free public school should start at age 4.

這種情況由來已久，但有人說，免費公立學校應該從 4 歲開始。

基礎被動語態

Universal Pre-K. Free or cheap education for 4-year-olds is already a reality in many wealthy countries around the world. But in the U.S., universal pre-k is often seen as a lofty, progressive goal with a big price tag. And it only exists in a few states and some cities.

普及學前教育。為 4 歲兒童提供免費或廉價教育在全球許多富裕國家已經成為現實。但在美國，普及學前教育往往被視為一個崇高、進步的目標，而且價格不菲。而且，它只存在於少數幾個州和一些城市。

Vermont's had it since 2014. So has New York City. And D.C.'s popular UPK program started in 2008. But the U.S. state with the longest continuously running, free, universally available, high-quality education program for 4-year-olds is Oklahoma. Yep, Oklahoma is about as conservative as it gets. It hasn't voted for a Democratic president in 60 years. But this state made free, high-quality pre-k the new normal back in 1998, years ahead of its progressive peers.

佛蒙特州從 2014 年起就有了。紐約市也是如此。華盛頓特區廣受歡迎的UPK計劃始於2008年。但在美國，為4歲兒童持續提供免費、普及、優質教育計劃時間最長的州是俄克拉荷馬州。沒錯，俄克拉荷馬州就是這麼保守。60 年來，該州從未投票選舉過民主黨總統。但這個州早在 1998 年就將免費、高質量的學前教育納入了新常態，領先於其進步的同行很多年。

Kindergarten is just an arbitrary line. It's hard to even think of us not having pre-k programs. It seems like they've been here forever.

幼兒園只是一條任意劃定的界線。很難想象我們沒有學前班。它們好像一直都在這裡。

I wanted to know a couple things. How they pulled this off.

我想知道幾件事他們是怎麼做到的？

The voters didn't have a clue what we were doing, on purpose.

選民們根本不知道我們在做什麼，這是故意的。

What other states can learn from the program, and what free pre-k looks like a generation of kids later? Now, free pre-k isn't exactly rare in the U.S. Most U.S. states offer some form of state-funded pre-k for 4-year-olds. But very few are considered universal. The majority of these programs prioritize low-income and at-risk children. Programs like that are often part of

其他州可以從該計劃中學到什麼，以及一代孩子之後的免費學前班是什麼樣子？現在，免費學前班在美國並不罕見。美國大多數州都為 4 歲兒童提供某種形式的州資助學前班。但很少有被認為是普及的。這些計劃大多優先考慮低收入和高危兒童。這樣的計劃通常是

Head Start, a big, federally-funded school program that's been subsidizing education for young children living in poverty since the 1960s. A program that the Trump administration is threatening to dismantle. In Oklahoma, Head Start schools and public elementary schools are closely linked. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, Head Start schools are run by an organization called

啟蒙教育計劃（Head Start）是一個由聯邦政府資助的大型學校項目，自 20 世紀 60 年代以來一直為生活貧困的幼兒提供教育補貼。特朗普政府威脅要廢除這一計劃。在俄克拉荷馬州，啟蒙學校和公立小學緊密相連。在俄克拉荷馬州塔爾薩市，啟蒙學校由一個名為

CAP Tulsa. They share resources with Tulsa public schools and, in many cases, are built close together. Everything the children are doing in the classroom is intentionally arranged to stimulate their development in every respect. I am the executive director of CAP Tulsa. We were observing these children using these colorful, tiny tiles that they were gluing onto the first letter of their name. That type of skill, that fine motor skill development, prepares them to hold a pencil. I visited both CAP and public elementary pre-k classrooms to see the kinds of activities she met, like identifying the parts of a book, and creative problem-solving and collaboration. It's how to get along with people, how to self-regulate. And it works. Decades of research shows that kids that experience high-quality education environments as four-year-olds show up to elementary school with an advantage. Kindergarten teachers always know the children that have come through our program because they are the children that know how to be in school.

CAP 塔爾薩。這些學校與塔爾薩市的公立學校共享資源，在很多情況下，學校都建在一起。孩子們在教室裡所做的一切都經過精心安排，以促進他們各方面的發展。我是塔爾薩 CAP 的執行董事。我們觀察到這些孩子在用五顏六色的小瓷磚粘貼自己名字的第一個字母。這種技能、精細動作技能的發展為他們握筆做好了準備。我參觀了 CAP 和公立小學學前班的教室，看到了她所見過的各種活動，比如識別書中的各個部分，以及創造性地解決問題和開展合作。這就是如何與人相處，如何自我調節。這很有效。數十年的研究表明，在四歲時經歷過優質教育環境的孩

You can really understand the impact of that when you see kids who didn't have this experience.

當你看到那些沒有這種經歷的孩子時，你就能真正理解這種影響。

Take a look at this video of Oklahoma five-year-olds in the 90s.

看看這段 90 年代俄克拉荷馬州五歲兒童的視頻吧。

Red. Okay, what color is this? Green. And what's this one? Red.

紅色好吧，這是什麼顏色？綠色這個呢？紅色

These kids were entering kindergarten, but some couldn't count to five. Is that five?

這些孩子剛上幼兒園，但有些還不會數到五。那是五嗎？

Seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, fourteen...

七、八、九、十、十一、十四...

So why doesn't every state have this? One maybe obvious barrier is funding. Not all lawmakers are convinced that the educational benefits of free pre-k for all are worth the money.

那麼，為什麼不是每個州都有這種做法呢？一個可能顯而易見的障礙就是資金。並不是所有的立法者都相信免費學前教育對教育的益處值得花錢。

But one group that is particularly wary of free pre-k is the private child care industry, and kind of for good reason. It all comes down to the business model of private child care.

但有一個群體對免費學前班特別警惕，那就是私立託兒所行業，這是有道理的。這一切都源於私立託兒所的商業模式。

One of the biggest costs to a certified child care center is hiring qualified teachers, and each age group requires different teacher-to-child ratios to ensure adequate care for each child.

認證託兒所的最大成本之一是聘請合格的教師，而且每個年齡組需要不同的教師與兒童比例，以確保為每個兒童提供充分的照顧。

Infants need the most care, so their required ratio is the highest, and these classrooms are the smallest.

嬰兒需要的照顧最多，是以他們所需的比例也最高，這些教室也最小。

As you move up to four-year-olds, your oldest group before they head off to public kindergarten, that ratio is lower, so the same number of teachers can accommodate a much larger group of kids.

到了四歲，也就是上公立幼兒園之前的最大年齡組，這個比例就會降低，是以同樣數量的教師可以容納更多的孩子。

So if you think of each teacher as a cost and each kid as a client, four-year-olds are the most profitable for these private child care providers, and subsidize the pricier infant care. Take them out of the equation by enacting universal pre-k, for example, and you risk bankrupting these child care centers or passing on unmanageable costs to working parents who need this service. This argument that universal pre-k hurts child care has come up as Texas has tried to expand pre-k access, but that didn't happen in Oklahoma, in large part because of this man. My name is Joe Eddins. I'm a retired member of the

是以，如果把每位教師看作是成本，把每個孩子看作是客戶，那麼對於這些私立託兒所來說，4 歲的孩子是最有利可圖的，他們可以補貼價格較高的嬰兒托兒服務。舉例來說，如果通過普及學前教育將他們排除在外，就有可能使這些託兒所破產，或將難以承受的成本轉嫁給需要這項服務的職業父母。在得克薩斯州試圖擴大學前教育覆蓋面時，這種 "普及學前教育會損害託兒所 "的論調就出現了，但俄克拉荷馬州並沒有這樣做，很大程度上是因為這個人。我叫喬-埃丁斯（Joe Eddins）。我是一名退休的

Oklahoma House of Representatives. His universal pre-k bill and a loophole in the law. In the late 1990s, I was able to add a 14th grade, and we called it pre-kindergarten. Kindergarten in the

俄克拉荷馬州眾議院。他的全民學前教育法案和法律漏洞。20 世紀 90 年代末，我得以增設第 14 個年級，我們稱之為學前班。幼兒園在

U.S. is for five-year-olds, but in the mid-90s, some Oklahoma school districts started to notice a hole in the state's new kindergarten law that incentivized them to add four-year-olds to those classrooms. This is how the loophole worked. The bill said that school districts could offer either a half-day kindergarten program or a full-day program, and the districts received funding based on the number of kids enrolled. But the law didn't say a half-day program counted less than a full-day program funding-wise. A student enrolled in either one earned the same amount for the district. It didn't take long to figure out that you could have two half-day programs in one day and get double-funded. This was just a moneymaker. One teacher could have the full money coming in in the morning, and then another set of full money coming just like the bank truck came by twice a day. And that was an incentive for schools to have a lot of kindergarten. Which is why four-year-olds were being added to these classrooms. More students enrolled in kindergarten meant more funding. Once school superintendents understood that a lot of people were doing this, and they figured out the money involved, they jumped on it. This was a problem for the state.

但在 90 年代中期，俄克拉荷馬州的一些學區開始注意到該州新幼兒園法中的一個漏洞，即鼓勵學區將 4 歲兒童納入這些班級。這個漏洞是這樣起作用的。該法案規定，學區可以提供半日制幼兒園課程或全日制課程，學區根據入學兒童人數獲得資助。但法律並沒有規定半日制課程的資助額低於全日制課程。無論哪種項目，學生都能為學區帶來相同的收益。沒過多久，人們就發現，你可以在一天內開設兩個半日制課程，並獲得雙倍資助。這簡直就是個賺錢的好辦法。一名教師可以在上午拿到全額資金，然後再拿到另一筆全額資金，就像銀行的卡車一天來兩次一樣。這

I had a worksheet that showed here's what we're doing last year, this year, and what'll happen next year as other school districts jump on this deal. To keep schools from packing kindergartens with four-year-olds, Joe's bill proposed setting up early childhood programs at any public school that wanted it. It would be free of charge, just for four-year-olds, and, crucially, he struck out this part, who meet the qualifications for Head Start.

我有一張工作表，上面顯示了我們去年、今年以及明年的情況，因為其他學區也加入了這一行列。為了防止學校把幼兒園擠滿四歲的孩子，喬的法案建議在任何公立學校設立幼兒教育項目。這將是免費的，只針對四歲的孩子，最關鍵的是，他剔除了這一部分，即符合 "啟蒙計劃 "資格的孩子。

With this one piece of one sentence removed, Joe was proposing a universal program. But to catch that, you'd need to read the bill closely. And Joe didn't say, this is the bill that creates universal pre-k, even though that's exactly what it was. What he said was, this is the bill that keeps four-year-olds out of kindergarten, and it's voluntary for everybody, and I sat down. The bill also said school districts could use their funding to contract with existing early child care providers. They could get state funding to start a four-year-old program and use it to hire early childhood education programs already in place. It, of course, would have to meet the standards, and I did not explain to them that it was going to be Head Start. But since the bill didn't seem to threaten private child care's four-year-old clientele, and very few others fully understood it anyway, no one who actually understood the bill told lawmakers to vote no. If a lobbyist does not come into your office and explain this law and why you should vote no on it, the legislator doesn't have any help except me. It passed the House 99-0. Once the word got out about free, high-quality pre-k, Oklahoma parents jumped at the opportunity to enroll their four-year-olds in their local elementary school. It got to where they started lining up in the early, early hours of the morning so that they could be in their neighborhood school. Part of it was they needed child care. Andy and Jana McKenzie taught in early childhood education in Tulsa public schools for 40 years. That's Jana conducting kindergarten assessments in that video back before Oklahoma had free pre-k. These two were instrumental in setting up the existing pre-k program, including in forging the close partnership between Head Start and public schools still in place today. And I think parents very quickly realized that it was a great place for their child to be. Offering pre-k in Oklahoma school districts was and still is voluntary. But 27 years later, free high-quality education for four-year-olds is offered in public schools in every school district in Oklahoma. Because even though red states like Oklahoma don't generally support big social policies, there's nothing really controversial about it at this point.

去掉這一句話，喬提出的是一項全民計劃。但要理解這一點，你需要仔細閱讀法案。喬並沒有說，這是一項建立全民學前教育的法案，儘管這正是法案的內容。他說的是：這是一個讓四歲兒童不上幼兒園的法案，每個人都可以自願參加。該法案還規定，學區可以利用其資金與現有的幼兒保育機構簽訂合同。他們可以獲得州政府的資助來啟動一項四歲兒童計劃，並用這筆資金來僱傭已有的早期兒童教育計劃。當然，這必須符合標準，我沒有向他們解釋這將是 "起步計劃"。但由於該法案似乎並沒有威脅到私立託兒所的四歲客戶，而且很少有人能完全理解該法案，是以沒有一

It's established. There are results. Families are happy. Communities are happy. They know it's a good program. They see the success of the children and how much they love school.

這是既定的。有成果。家庭幸福。社區很高興。他們知道這是一個好項目。他們看到了孩子們的成功以及他們對學校的熱愛。

In Oklahoma, pre-k is just when school begins. I don't run into anybody anymore that doesn't know that there's a pre-k program. It's there. It's just part of what we offer. And most of them, because they need it for child care, go ahead and sign up. Implementing universal pre-k isn't easy or cheap. You need qualified teachers and often construction of new facilities. But the biggest lesson from Oklahoma for me was if states can find a way to do this, whether it's through groups of dedicated advocates and educators demonstrating why it's good for kids and parents, or it's through a little wheeling and dealing, the programs once in place are beloved across the political spectrum. It's a wonderful program and fills the need of a lot of parents. Where do they want their children to be when they're four years old? Just this year, a Republican lawmaker in Oklahoma introduced a bill that would expand free pre-k to all three-year-olds in the state.

在俄克拉荷馬州，學前班剛開學時就有了。我再也沒有碰到過不知道有學前班的人了。學前班就在那裡。這只是我們提供的服務的一部分。他們中的大多數人，因為需要照顧孩子，都會去報名。實施普及學前教育既不容易也不便宜。你需要合格的教師，還經常需要建造新的設施。但我從俄克拉荷馬州得到的最大啟示是，如果各州能想方設法做到這一點，不管是通過一群熱心的倡導者和教育工作者來證明為什麼這對孩子和家長有好處，還是通過一些小手段，這些計劃一旦實施，就會受到各政治派別的喜愛。這是一項很好的計劃，滿足了很多家長的需求。他們希望自己的孩子在

It hasn't passed, with some lawmakers noting the pressure it would put on private early childhood education centers. But just the fact that a Republican wanted to offer free education to all three-year-olds is just so Oklahoma.

該法案尚未獲得通過，一些立法者指出這將給私立幼兒教育中心帶來壓力。但事實上，共和黨人希望為所有三歲兒童提供免費教育，這實在是太俄克拉荷馬了。

字幕列表影片播放

這個紅色之州為何免費提供學前教育 (Why this red state made preschool free)

demonstrate

incentive

quality

exist