[bombcar]

This is 100% it right here. When I was young, kindergarten was preschool (sometimes actually called that) and was also not mandatory. You could start school in first grade, and some schools didn't even have kindergarten.

Now preschool has standardized tests (!!!!!) and expected outcomes and kindergarten is worse. And 3K has been invented to be what preschool (and before that, kindergarten) once was. Of course, you can't go to 3K or 4K if you're not potty trained, which puts additional time crunches and restrictions on things.

Maybe it helps overall, but I'm not entirely sure it does.