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There is virtually no evidence that all-day kindergarten has long-term positive effects when study groups are controlled for intelligence. That is, kids who are already smart tend to attend all-day kindergarten in higher proportions than less intelligent kids. Later, achievement differences are attributed to the all-day kindergarten attendance, instead of the fact many attendees were smarter in the first place. When controlling for intelligence, any "gains" attributed to all-day kindergarten evaporate by the third grade, and in some cases by first grade, and do so with stubborn consistency.

All-day kindergarten is, however, a tremendous benefit to four groups. First, it benefits parents who don't have to negotiate a half-day program around job responsibilities. Second, it benefits teachers unions, whose numbers swell with newly hired teachers. Third, education (but never economic) researchers benefit by the endless and elusive search for the mythical "benefits" of all-day kindergarten. Finally, politicians, such as Sen. Gallo and Rep. Ucci benefit by taking credit for a program that, like Head Start, sounds good when you say it fast, yet yields no measurable academic benefits.