Personally I'm glad it's not part of free public education. The less interference from the government at this level, the better. It'll happen soon enough. I take it to mean you are talking about preschool - I don't call it pre-k - and it is a lot more than glorified daycare. My son's school teaches him basic handwriting skills, they learn letters, socialization, etc. They are there 2 1/2 hours a day four days a week and it's quite an academic program. So I'm not sure what the one poster was referring to. Our preschool is nothing like what she mentioned. If you're low income and can't afford it, then there should probably be some assistance programs in place - but it's not necessary to send your child to preschool. There are Headstart programs that can do that if you're low-income. And I know some parents in my area who are taking advantage of a government subsidized preschool that can obviously afford it.