By Del Stover
01/06/04 -- If everything goes as planned, every 4-year-old in Florida -- approximately 200,000 children -- will soon have access to a state-funded preschool program designed to pave the way for a successful start in school.
Mandated by voters in a 2002 state ballot initiative, this ambitious effort to prepare young children for school will cost more than $260 million annually when it launches next year. With services provided by public schools and private and community-based child-care centers, officials estimate that 70 percent of the state's eligible children might participate.
Despite concern the program could divert funds from K-12 education, subsidizing broader access to preschool opportunities has the potential to help the state's public schools improve student achievement, says Wayne Blanton, executive director of the Florida School Boards Association.
"Obviously, as students come to the public schools better prepared, our job will be easier," he says. "Early intervention just leads to better students."
That opinion isn't unique to Florida. The concept of universal preschool -- using government funds to create a preschool system available to all children -- is gaining currency in policy-making circles. As a growing body of research concludes that high-quality preschool boosts a child's later school performance, more political leaders see universal preschool as a promising strategy to close the academic achievement gap in the nation's K-12 schools.
Yet, it will take a lot of political support to turn the idea into reality. The cost of universal preschool nationwide is estimated at $25 to $35 billion over current spending levels, and any serious push to expand services will require a significant investment of funds. In some states, it's already happening:
• In California, a number of local and state commissions, charged with spending cigarette tax revenue on early childhood services, has collectively earmarked more than $600 million to make private and public preschool services accessible to more young children.
• Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has called for making preschool available to every child in the state, starting with 25,000 "at risk" children over the next three years. A bill signed in July made 7,000 more families eligible for state assistance in paying preschool and child care costs.
• New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has pledged to increase funding for preschool programs by taking advantage of additional education funds approved by voters.
Advocates cite research on the benefits of preparing young children for school, while opponents question whether new funds should be directed to K-12 education.
Yet, unlike the push for state-funded kindergarten decades ago, few are calling for public schools to shoulder total responsibility for preschool.
Except for Oklahoma, where state-funded preschools are operated by local school systems, most efforts to implement universal preschool envision a role for the existing system of private and community-based child-care providers, in conjunction with services provided to children through the federal Head Start program.
Yet, even some educators who encourage more government-subsidized preschool programs are leery of the concept of universal preschool.
Bruce Fuller, a University of California-Berkeley professor and researcher on the value of preschool education, worries that a rush to expand preschool opportunities to everyone will lower the quality of programs overall and divert funds from poorer urban neighborhoods where the need for such services is greatest.
"Now is not the time to subsidize affluent parents who can afford to pay for preschool," he says. "We need to conserve resources to expand access in lower-income areas and among blue-collar families who cannot afford to pay $7,000 a year for preschool. We need to conserve resources for quality improvements. Poor [quality] preschools will not close the achievement gap."
With the nation still reeling from the effects of the worst state budget crisis in decades, there is little danger that universal preschool will sweep the nation soon.
Still, state-subsidized preschool programs have seen steady expansion in the past 15 years -- at least until the recent budget crunch hit states. All told, 22 states supplement the Head Start program, and 42 provide at least some funding for preschool services.
Today, only two states -- Georgia and Oklahoma -- sponsor universal preschool programs. Florida is scheduled to launch its program in 2005, while West Virginia plans to put a program in place by 2012.
Another state that's talking seriously about jumping on the bandwagon is Connecticut, where the education department, with the support of Lt. Gov. M. Jodi Rell and a coalition of lawmakers, community leaders, and business representatives, launched a public relations campaign this fall to bolster support for universal preschool by 2010.
Yet, even supporters acknowledge they're fighting an uphill battle. Currently, the state invests $44.5 million annually to serve 13,000 disadvantaged children through its support of local preschool and Head Start programs. Officials aren't sure the state can afford to boost services to another 20,000 disadvantaged children -- let alone serve children of more affluent families.
"We intend to move forward and encourage support, but we also recognize that this is a very tough fiscal climate," says Tom Murphy, spokesperson for the Connecticut education department. "We can lay plans for expansion, but whether that happens . . . will be a tough call by the state legislature."
Serious talk of universal preschool also can be heard in California, which ranks fifth from the bottom nationwide in the percentage of children enrolled in preschool programs.
A statewide ballot initiative in 1998 set aside a 50-cents-a-pack tax on cigarettes that brings in nearly $600 million annually for health, education, and other services for young children.
A sizable portion of that money is being earmarked for expanded preschool programs by the public commissions charged with dispensing the funds.
One of the most ambitious initiatives is in Los Angeles County, where officials have committed $530 million over five years to make universal preschool a reality for more than 150,000 4-year-olds.
Meanwhile, a coalition of early childhood education advocates, along with the California Teachers Association, is pushing for a new state ballot measure this year to raise business taxes and provide $4.5 billion more for education, including $1.5 billion for preschool.
"It's not a matter of 'if' universal preschool is going to happen in California, it's only a matter of 'when,' " state Assembly member Darrell Steinberg, an advocate of universal preschool, told the Sacramento Bee last month.
Other parts of the nation, however, have been less fertile ground for universal preschool.
In New York, a coalition of early childhood education advocates found themselves last year fighting to defend the status quo after Gov. George Pataki proposed major cuts to a preschool program serving 60,000 children.
Meanwhile, Minnesota's state-subsidized program suffered serious budget cuts in 2003 that will cause thousands of children to lose state assistance for preschool services.
In Pennsylvania, Gov. Ed Rendell proposed an expansion of preschool services but has found his plans largely stymied by a budget-minded legislature.
On the federal level, debate has largely focused on President Bush's proposals to reform Head Start by putting more focus on literacy and giving some states block grants to run the program.
The issue could earn more attention as the presidential campaign heats up. A number of Democratic contenders, including former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, have proposed ambitious, multibillion-dollar initiatives to make universal preschool a reality.
"When you're dealing with children where both parents are working, these early childhood years are absolutely critical in laying the foundations for the kind of learning we have to promote to make our public schools successful and make America successful," Clark told reporters during a campaign stop in New Hampshire.