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Echoing President Obama State of the Union call for universal pre-school, earlier this week Councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) introduced legislation that would make preschool mandatory for all D.C. children.

Under the provisions of the bill, D.C. law would be changed to mandate that all three-year-olds attend pre-school; currently, school is only mandatory for kids five or older. If the bill passed, kids could attend a public, independent, private or parochial pre-school.

D.C. is already somewhat ahead of the curve, though. Ever since it guaranteed a pre-school spot to any kid who wants it, some 13,000 of the 15,000 three- and four-year-old are attending local pre-schools. Their popularity has been such that the a large part of the enrollment increases in D.C. public schools has been driven by pre-school programs.