Last week, Fox News attacked President Obama’s proposal for expanding universal early childhood education by characterizing it as a government handout intended to extend “literally, the nanny state” and warned that the president is using preschool to entice a whole new generation of toddlers to vote for him.

On Sunday, the network’s sister station, Fox Business, continued its attacks, as host Gerri Willis called the effort “immoral“:

WILLIS: I have to tell you, I think it’s immoral to make all of these promises, when you know you can’t afford it, we can’t afford it. Preschool for everyone, are you kidding me? We don’t have the money for that! … This is just crazy talk and I think it’s immoral to put this across as something that’s actually doable, when it’s not.

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Universal preschool programs increase the likelihood of a child going to college and decrease drop out rates, teen pregnancies, and criminal behavior. And while President Obama has pledged that the proposals included in his State of the Union address will not contribute to the deficit, studies show that investing in children when they’re young generates up to “$11 of economic benefits over a child’s lifetime for every dollar spent initially on the program.”

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) shot down President Obama’s proposal for universal pre-school education during an appearance on CSPAN’s Washington Journal on Friday, complaining that the plan — first unveiled during last week’s State of the Union address — would force teachers to fill out too much paperwork.

“You know, I had an email from a teacher as [Obama] was giving the speech, someone I’ve known for a long time and it was, ‘Are you kidding me? More paperwork?’” Blackburn said. She went on to argue that education should be handled by state and local governments:

BLACKBURN: And I think so many of our educators when they hear about these programs coming from the federal government, they’re just thinking, uh, that’s another book of paperwork that I’m going to have to do and teachers are so weighed down with that. The teachers I’m talking about, they want state and local control…They would just like the states with control of education.

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Obama’s proposal to expand preschool education to all American children will be financed in partnership with the states and is based on successful models in Georgia and Oklahoma. The U.S. Department of Education “will allocate dollars to states based their share of four-year olds from low- and moderate-income families and funds would be distributed to local school districts and other partner providers to implement the program,” a White House fact sheet on the initiative states.

Preschool substantially reduces the likelihood that a child will later drop out of high school, become a teen parent, or be arrested for a violent crime. Studies have determined universal preschool programs generate roughly $7 in savings per child and increases human capital.