Proponents of public school pre-kindergarten programs generally argue that it has two benefits: that it helps children succeed in school, and that it is a reliable, free source of child care for working parents.

There’s some debate about what the data say about that first point, but few argue with the latter. Despite that, not every school district offers pre-kindergarten — and some districts have even seen fierce battles to stop the expansion of pre-K programs.

One state avoided that fight, however, and has one of the US’s most successful public, universal pre-K programs: Oklahoma.

My colleague Coleman Lowndes recently traveled to the state to better understand how its program came together. I asked him about that, and what other states can learn from Oklahoma. Our conversation, edited

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