As cash-strapped states continue to debate expanding early childhood programs and struggle to finance them, EarlyStories credits Patrick Riccards of Eduflack with laying out some important questions about quality. For example, is it possible to quantify results, he asks?

Journalists covering these battles would do well to ask such questions at a time when the public is waiting to see if President Barack Obama follows through on his campaign commitment to improve early childhood education through a major federal investment.

The demands of covering a K-12 beat make it easy for journalists to ignore what is or is not happening in early childhood education, although most are covering budget battles and the proposals of governors who have had to scale back promises. Riccards makes the excellent point that it's all too easy for the pre-k programs that exist to escape scrutiny.

"If we expect to transform every child into a successful learner, we also need to implement the quality, accountability, and teacher effectiveness into our preK systems,'' he notes, adding that the public must demand quality and results.

For that to happen, journalists must remember their watchdog role and find time to visit an array of early childhood programs and ask questions about the results. It's an important way of helping the public understand what good programs can -- or cannot -- accomplish.