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Remember Blagojevich's plan to send every pre-kindergarten baby or child a book every month?

It was in "Freakonomics":

In early 2004, Governor Rod Blagojevich announced a plan to mail one book a month to every child in Illinois from the time they were born until they entered kindergarten. The plan would cost $26 million a year. But, Blagojevich argued, this was a vital intervention in a state where 40 percent of third graders read below their grade level. ?When you own [books] and they?re yours,? he said, ?and they just come as part of your life, all of that will contribute to a sense ? that books should be part of your life."

The book portrayed the plan as a mistake about cause and effect. (The real reason why children with books in their houses do well is that their parents are well-educated.) I note the book's assumption that the reason for the plan was to help kids.

Full post as published by Althouse on December 11, 2008 (boomark / email).