One year ago, my son E. was struggling with language development. The school district evaluated him and the speech language experts felt he was in a grey area where his delay was significant, but not severe enough to get him special education. He qualified for Head Start due to the language delay, but we were not high on the wait-list because of our family income status and college-education. Our pediatrician strongly felt he would benefit from the social interaction and structure of a preschool environment, but in order to access it, we would need to pay to send him to a private preschool. We were lucky, because with a little bit of saving and budget tightening, we could afford to make this choice. E. has been in school since the fall and I am amazed to see his incredible growth. His language is exploding and his social skills are blossoming. I know we made the right choice to invest in my child’s future and it pains me that other families can’t afford to make that choice. I strongly support universal preschool as an important investment in our nation’s future.