You are aware, of course, of the Pollster’s plans for all children to be raised in State Podding Hutches so as to increase social justice? Two year olds, three year olds should be ripped from the arms of their family and raised by fully trained pedagogues?

Bad news I’m afraid, this is perhaps not quite what we want to happen. A paper in NBER (via Marginal Revolution) shows the effects of pre-kindergarten education on young children. Now I agree, the ages are a little different, what Americans call pre-K12 is actually the age at which we send children to a real school (four and half, five or so) but it would be remarkable to think that doing so earlier, as Polly Pot suggests, would not have greater such effects. Indeed, this research might actually be showing that we are sending children to school too early, even under the current system.

Hands up everyone who thinks that the major problem in British schools is excessive self-control:

"Early education does increase reading and mathematics skills at
school entry, but it also boosts children’s classroom behavioral
problems and reduces their self-control. Further, for most children the
positive effects of pre-kindergarten on skills largely dissipate by the
spring of first grade, although the negative behavioral effects
continue."