{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02100840336134454, 'fraction_numerical': 0.004201680672268907, 'mean_word_length': 5.408071748878924, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Introduction: Crossing Boundaries and Colliding Worlds: The Politics of Prekindergarten Education

Public involvement in early childhood education has expanded in recent years as states have entered the field to provide publicly funded programs for 3and 4-year-olds (Georgia, Oklahoma, Florida, New York, and others). These public programs are being implemented to fulfill both popular demand and political agendas, while the needs of early childhood education have historically been met for many by a large private sector. The increase in public early childhood education is creating a tension between disparate worlds that we believe can benefit from close analysis. For the 2010 PEA yearbook, our purpose was to shine a light on the changing worlds of early childhood education—public/private, low income/middle income, rural/urban—as well as to illuminate the political issues that are influencing policy in early childhood education (workforce development, gender issues, and response to public opinion). For this edition we sought contributors who were not necessarily versed in the academic world of the politics of education in order to view the worlds of early childhood education politics and policy through a range of theoretical lenses. This broad view of the field of early childhood education, hopefully, has provided a collection of articles that examine the range of political issues and policy options currently