Why Kindergarten Is Too Late: The Need for Early Childhood Remedies in School Finance Litigation

In 2006, Jim Ryan, then a law professor, now dean of Harvard University’s School of Education, published A Constitutional Right to Preschool, a seminal article that argued that courts should require states to fund public preschools as a means of abiding by their constitutional obligations to provide all children adequate educational opportunities. Though very few courts have ever imposed such a requirement, and all but one of these rulings have been eliminated on appeal, Ryan noted the political popularity of universal preschool and a growing trend among states to provide free pre-kindergarten as grounds for optimism that courts might be more open to ordering preschool remedies in future litigation.