boy painting, preschool

A boy paints at an easel set upwardly in his state-funded preschool classroom in East Palo Alto. March 2013. Credit: Lillian Mongeau, EdSource Today

California could most double its spending on public preschool with an influx of federal funding if the president's proposal to significantly increase the money available for early childhood programs passes Congress, according to data released by the U.S. Section of Instruction on Tuesday.

Since President Barack Obama'south State of the Union address in January, early on learning has become the centerpiece of the assistants'southward educational activity policy calendar. The president has proposed a federal program, funded past an increased tobacco tax, that would partner with states to expand access to and quality of public preschool programs for depression- and moderate-income 4-yr-olds. The plan would besides provide funding for expanded infant and toddler intendance. Both initiatives would cost $75 billion in new early learning funds over the next decade.

If approved for participation in the Preschool for All program, California would be eligible for an additional $334 million in federal preschool funding with a required state friction match of $33.4 million, co-ordinate to federal estimates. The U.Southward. Department of Instruction estimates that this would allow the state to serve an additional 41,000 children. The department did not specify if these children would be served by a full- or half-mean solar day plan. In 2011-2012, California spent $386 meg to provide half-24-hour interval country preschool to more than than 200,000 children.

The data released Tuesday offers the first glimpse at what individual states could await to receive under the president'due south proposal – which faces significant obstacles in a fractured Congress. The funding estimate is based on a land's electric current population of four-year-olds in families living at or beneath 200 pct of the federal poverty line, or $47,100 annually for a family of iv. California ranks near the pinnacle of all states on that measure, with nearly 1.iv 1000000 qualifying four-year-olds, according to Children Now, a national organization advocating for more than public funding for children's issues.

The current state plan is not fully funded. Only about one-half of eligible four-twelvemonth-olds are enrolled, said Deborah Kong, the federal policy analyst at Early on Edge California, an advancement system focused on increasing services for children from infants to age 8. "We're not even serving the number of kids who are eligible," she said. "Whatsoever sort of paring we tin can make in that l percent would exist huge."

The president'southward proposal, called Preschool For All, would make another $20.9 1000000 available to California for home-visiting programs. The programs transport nurses, social workers or other professionals to the homes of low-income parents of infants and toddlers to teach parents well-nigh early language acquisition, nutrition and condom sleeping habits.

States would not be required to take the federal money or participate in the program, and questions remain over how it would exist implemented.

The president's proposal requires states to put up some matching funds to qualify for federal preschool money, and information technology'southward non articulate if the money California currently spends on preschool programs would count toward the country'due south lucifer. Nor is it articulate if California'due south current land preschool program volition meet the quality standards the federal government plans to crave from states receiving funding. Roberto Rodriguez, the president'southward adviser on education, said Tuesday that he could not yet comment on upcoming legislation that might clarify these issues.

The administration did outline the quality standards states must meet in club to participate in the Preschool for All program in a budget justification certificate sent to Congress in mid-April.California's state preschool programme currently meets about half of the quality requirements, so it is difficult to tell if the state would qualify for participation in the program in year one. The administration estimates that simply 12 to 15 states volition run across the standards initially. The budget request also calls for competitive grants to assist states bring their programs into compliance and to brainstorm to receive their portion of the Preschool for All money.

U.Due south. Secretary of Teaching Arne Duncan said Tuesday that spending money on early on childhood teaching is "an investment, not an expense." The proposed expansion of publicly funded preschool is expected to be hotly debated when legislation attempting to enact the president'due south plan reaches the flooring of the House and Senate later this summertime. The proposal would increase the federal tax on tobacco products from $one.01 to $1.95 per pack.

This story was updated on June 5, 2022 at 12:13 p.1000.

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