California

Offering preschool to 4-year-olds would cost state $2.16B, study says

Laura Impellizzeri, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, February 15, 2007

California would have to create space for thousands more preschoolers if it is going to offer preschool to all 4-year-olds, as proposed in an initiative that state voters rejected in November, according to a study released Wednesday assessing the space available in the state's child-care centers.

Researchers with the Advancement Project, a national public policy and civil rights group in Los Angeles, estimate that building enough space to meet the need would cost $2.16 billion. Citing benefits from preschool that have been documented in a range of studies, the researchers write that their group is "strongly in favor of expanding publicly supported preschool."

They applied two different scenarios to determine how much space California needs to add.

If the state wants to provide free preschool for all its estimated 557,000 4-year-olds by fall 2010, it will find itself 117,000 spots short, the researchers found.

If the state wants to serve only 4-year-olds who are heading into public schools ranking in the bottom two-fifths statewide for performance, it will need 23,000 new spots, they said. The shortfall in each scenario is about 21 percent.

The study, funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, looked at preschool availability within children's neighborhoods. It did not include licensed home-based child care, which it said accounts for about half of California's licensed spots for 4-year-olds.

The researchers found child care space unevenly distributed across the state, with less available in newer, less densely populated and lower-income areas.

Center-based care also is more scarce in areas with higher proportions of black and Latino residents, the study found.

The greatest proportionate shortage of preschool space in the state -- 43 percent -- was in Riverside County. Los Angeles, the county with the largest numerical shortfall, lacks 33,000 spots under the preschool-for-all scenario and accounts for 28 percent of the spots missing statewide.

In 20 counties, there is enough space for all but 5 percent of 4-year-olds, according to the study. Several California counties, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, already are beginning to offer publicly funded preschool for all 4-year-olds.

Comment: I'm always amazed at "I ate the whole thing." When will we learn that good things come in small packages one bite at a time?