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A recent report on preschool education in developed countries found that Australia has some catching up to do. According to the report, Starting Strong II, Australia spends much less on pre-school education and has lower participation rates than almost all other countries in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development).

These findings are not new. International comparisons have been showing this for a long time. What is new is that preschool is starting to be taken seriously in Australia. But it is one thing to say that preschool is beneficial for many children, and another to make it compulsory for all children.

This is just what many people, including high-profile politicians and academics, would like to do. The federal education minister, Julie Bishop, has proposed a compulsory year of pre-school and the idea has been vigorously supported by child development expert and former Australian of the Year Fiona Stanley. Others have suggested that all children should attend two years at preschool.

There are no good arguments against preschools or against more spending on preschools. Preschool is a wonderful thing and should be available to all children.

There are, however, good arguments against making preschool compulsory. These arguments are not to do with the indoctrination of toddlers by the state. Likewise, concerns about the imposition of formal academic curriculum on very young children are groundless. All preschools have a play-based curriculum that emphasizes social skills and self-discipline.

The arguments against compulsory preschool come from a child and family welfare perspective. What is right for one child will not necessarily be right for another. In New South Wales, children can start school at 4 ½ years old, and many do. A compulsory year of preschool would have these children separated from their parents at 3 ½. For some children this is not a problem but for others it would be disastrous.

Experts are fond of talking about the importance of the early years of brain development for learning. Fiona Stanley, in her support for compulsory preschool, has said that “…the early years of brain development, if they are positive and nurtured and appropriate, means that your brain is okay for the rest of your life.” This is an important message but it can be taken two ways. Some young children are simply not ready for preschool. Separation from their parents is sometimes not positive or appropriate and it should not be forced on them.

People in favour of more spending on social services like education are also fond of looking to Sweden, and preschool advocates are no exception. We have to be careful in making such comparisons. Sweden’s spending on preschool is certainly higher than Australia’s, but Sweden’s expenditure figures make no distinction between preschool and childcare, whereas Australia’s are for preschool alone. Participation in preschool is higher in Sweden than in Australia, but Swedish children start school at age seven, where Australian children most often begin at five. And, importantly, while preschool is available to all children in Sweden, even there it is not compulsory.

A number of studies, including the Perry Preschool Project in the US, have found that preschool has benefits for children that flow into adulthood. These findings have been used to extrapolate economic benefits of ‘investing’ in early childhood education. But we must be careful not to leap frog over the wellbeing of children in the present in an effort to secure their futures.

Furthermore, experts advise caution in expecting the same outstanding results from the general population. The strongest findings are that preschool is most beneficial for children from disadvantaged homes.

Even in the case of disadvantaged children we should not expect miracles, however. Edward Ziglar, co-founder of the child development and school readiness program Head Start and director of the Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy at Yale University has said “the arguments in favor of preschool education were that it would reduce school failure, lower dropout rates, increase test scores, and produce a generation of more competent high school graduates. . . . Preschool education will achieve none of these results… We simply cannot inoculate children in one year against the ravages of a life of depravation.”

These are the theoretical and technical warnings. There will always be some ambiguity about research, but in this case the reality is somewhat different. Among teachers of kindergarten (the first year of primary (elementary) school, you will find complete agreement – they can always tell which kids have been to preschool, and it is usually the kids who need preschool the most that are the least likely to have attended one. These teachers tell of children who come to school having never held a pencil, having never been read to, and whose speech is unintelligible.

Productivity Commission data show that in all states except NSW, more than eighty per cent of children attend preschool in the year before they start school. In NSW, it is only around sixty per cent, largely because there are very few public preschools in NSW (only 100, in fact) and community preschools receive insufficient funding to offer fee-relief to low income families.

Preschool is a state responsibility in Australia. It is up to the states to either provide preschool services or to help to make community and private preschools available and accessible. In this, NSW in particular has failed.

But the federal government is not off the hook. The federal minister has made motherhood statements about the need for a nationally consistent preschool system but has not been willing to commit to even the most obvious need for reform – extending the child care benefit to preschools. Presently, parents are entitled to rebates and tax benefits for child care fees but not for pre-school fees. Community pre-schools charge an average of $30 for a 9am-3pm day, a significant sum for most families. After hours care for working parents is extra.

Preschool should be more accessible and more affordable, especially for those families who need it most. Given the opportunity and the choice, the large majority of families of all walks of life will want to give their children the benefits and joy of attending preschool. However, the early years of childhood are precious and limited. Forcing parents to send their children into institutional care before they are ready is an unnecessary intrusion into family life.

Jennifer Buckingham is a research fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.