But that doesn’t necessarily mean we should give it up.
But that does n’t mean we have to give up on it. But that does n’t mean we have to give up on it.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean we should give it up.
In late February, the Biden Administration released a letter encouraging state-by-state efforts to “serve more of our youngest learners in high-quality preschool” as administered by “community-based childcare providers, schools, Head Start programs, and family child care homes.” The guidance included no provisions for funding; instead, it offered recommendations around how to spend existing federal, state, and local resources.. . With the Presidential election a few months away, the letter can be seen as an attempt by the White House to follow up on the campaign promise Biden made four years ago for free and reduced child care for all three- and four-year olds. That pledge was derailed by the slimmed-down Build Back Better package—which did not include funding for early childhood education—and the expiration of pandemic-era funding for childcare providers and agencies.. . The letter signaled that, while universal preschool is still on Biden’s radar, bringing the program to fruition at the federal level is not politically possible. And so, it placed the burden on states to do the impossible, and blue and red states alike have outlined their ambitions to do so. Alabama and Georgia are looking to transform their current first-come, first-serve, lottery-based system of free state-funded preschool to all families. The governors of Illinois and Michigan have made promises and budgetary commitments towards free preschool for all four-year olds in the next few years. But California is providing a model right now of what universal preschool could look like—and revealing all the challenges that come with it.. . In the summer of 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom announced his $2.7 billion plan for universal preschool by expanding the state’s transitional kindergarten program from serving four-year-olds with fall and winter birthdays at a few elementary schools, to making all four-year-olds eligible for TK at their local public school by 2025-26. The expansion is expected to balloon enrollment from 100,000 to 400,000 within the next two years, effectively ensuring free and high-quality universal preschool for all families of four-year-olds.. . But almost as soon as it was announced, the obstacles threatening its success became apparent. First, there aren’t enough teachers. The state’s K-12 education system is currently facing an unprecedented teacher staffing crisis; adding another grade level without addressing the shortage would make it worse. It is bad enough for high school seniors to be placed in classrooms without a chemistry teacher, for example, but who will be expected to staff these brand new classrooms filled with four-year-olds when it’s their first time in school?. . On top of this, to be eligible to teach pre-K, California requires the same extensive and expensive qualifications required of K-12 teachers, effectively shutting out many existing preschool educators—most of whom are women of color, older, low-income, immigrants and/or undocumented workers—who lack the time, capacity, and interest in returning to school, despite the state’s attempts to reduce the financial burden.. . What’s more, even if every classroom was staffed by well-trained teachers and classroom aides meeting the intended 10:1 child-to-adult ratio, it’s still unclear what a universal pre-K curriculum should look like. The California Department of Education has academic standards for K-12 classrooms but has yet to release benchmarks outlining what four-year-olds are expected to learn across subject matter. How much of the alphabet should students know? How high should they be able to count? Do we want them to be able to point to California on a map?. . Without standards to shape the vision of what universal preschool ought to be, we risk undoing the promise of equity that universal accessibility was meant to solve. Without a basis of where the bar will be, some classrooms will hover above it, others will be below, and as history has shown us, the most marginalized of children who need high-quality early experiences the most will end up being the least likely to receive it.. . California’s lack of preparedness for universal pre-K is reflected in school systems across the country. Most schools are not built for universal pre-K and, in order to make the program possible, administrators need to drastically revamp the schools themselves. They need to build child-sized bathrooms in each classroom; playgrounds and outdoor spaces that are safe and accessible; before and after care outside of the hours of 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. for the children of working parents.. . Recent evidence has shown that pre-K has improved kindergarten readiness, demonstrated positive social-emotional outcomes for students, and allowed for the earlier identification of English language learners. At the same time, additional findings highlight the need for more effective programming and interventions for multilingual learners and a need to invest in public school systems beyond early childhood so that academic gains made in preschool do not fade not out as students get older.. . Nevertheless, decades of research have shown that when we study the lifelong outcomes of students participation in preschool programs, initial dips give way to greater rates of return for participants when it comes to education, health, employment, civic life, and more. Universal pre-K is imperfect and requires constant improvement and long-term investments.. . The push for universal pre-K must be continued until it’s realized, not only because kids and their families deserve it, but because we all benefit when life is made better for the most marginalized among us.
