There are those who believe that children who attend school at
ages 3 and 4 have an enormous head start over those who wait
until kindergarten or first grade. That's why many states,
including nearby West Virginia, established ''pre-K'' school
programs. The National Institute for Early Education Research
cites West Virginia's pre-K program as one of the nation's best.
That's one of the reasons that on our side of the border,
complaints are mounting that Ohio lags far behind in emphasis on
pre-K education. In West Virginia, 58 percent of 4-year-olds and
9 percent of 3-year-olds are enrolled in pre-K programs. The
numbers for Ohio are just 2 percent and 1 percent, respectively.
Good for Ohio. A 2005 Stanford University research study
reported, ''We find that attendance in preschool centers, even
for short periods of time each week, hinders the rate at which
young children develop social skills and display the motivation
to engage in classroom tasks.'' According to a report by the
Southwest Policy Institute, ''C