Universal Preschool a Daunting Task

A Los Angeles County commission attracted wide attention last month when it resolved to spend $100 million in the first steps toward a universal preschool system.

Behind-the-scenes members of the staff at the Proposition 10 Commission suddenly were fielding calls from parents eager to enroll youngsters, from child-care experts offering advice and from overseas newspapers seeking comment.

The initial excitement, however, was followed quickly by recognition of the project’s enormous scope: It was intended to provide free preschool to more than 100,000 3-and 4-year-olds and eventually to serve many more from birth to kindergarten.

The question now is whether the formerly low-key commission, funded with tobacco tax money, can carry it off.

Many experts around the country applaud the Los Angeles County initiative but warn that it faces significant barriers--especially to finding political leaders to champion the project and to uniting the often squabbling community of child-care and preschool providers.

“We can’t kid ourselves on the magnitude of what we have set out to do,” said Teresa Nuno, the commission’s programs director. “It’s going to be a tricky balance to keep everyone on the same page; to keep the energy level and interest in the project high.”

The commission, which recently renamed itself the Los Angeles First Five Commission, for the first five years of life, has taken a few concrete steps. It released a tentative year-long timeline to come up with a workable plan. It will establish a community advisory council and, perhaps more crucial, is looking to hire someone from outside the agency to guide the project, someone knowledgeable and respected in the field and with political savvy and vision. The commission hopes to make the appointment in the next few weeks.

Rob Reiner Idea

That person will have to help move the project from the shadow of filmmaker and children’s advocate Rob Reiner, who as chairman of the state Proposition 10 Commission first championed the idea of universal preschool in Los Angeles County.

In the commission’s fledgling plan, existing preschool programs would be expanded from half days to full days, child-care providers would be trained to become preschool instructors, new centers would be built to pick up the slack, and needy families could receive other social services. The program would be free to 3-and 4-year-olds, regardless of family income.

But there will be tough choices: Who will administer the vast system once it’s up and running? Which neighborhoods will get attention first? Will families get vouchers or some other form of subsidy to enroll their children in the program? What standards will preschools be held to, and who will monitor their performance?

The first enrollments likely will be in neighborhoods with low-performing elementary schools. But that concept and decisions over where to build new facilities could set off political debate.

The commission also must consider whether the preschool program will divert energies from other worthy projects, such as health care for youngsters, and how it will afford to maintain and expand preschool access as tobacco taxes shrink with the decline in smoking. The county agency now receives about $165 million annually from the statewide Proposition 10 cigarette tax approved in 1998.

Not Enough Preschools

Child care in the county now is an uncoordinated hodgepodge of private centers, public Head Start programs, school-based preschools and in-home child-care providers. A recent UC Berkeley study put the number of licensed preschool slots at nearly 104,000. The preschool population is estimated at 300,000. That report concluded that at least 100,000 preschool-age children are on waiting lists for subsidized care in the county, while some centers have vacancies.

Planners are aware of suspicions among groups that have battled for resources and turf. “The challenge is the sheer number of perspectives and groups and people that need to be a part of this,” said Jacquelyn McCroskey, a USC social work professor and commission member.

Divisions exist, for example, between the early childhood education camp, which promotes classroom-based preschool, with accredited teachers and a strong curriculum, and the home-based family day-care providers who believe many parents prefer smaller group settings led by trusted staff members who may not have teaching credentials.

The Los Angeles commission wants to develop a single standard of education and training for providers. Part of that initiative may establish higher pay scales to retain those who earn new degrees.

“Family child-care providers in other states have had the bad experience of being promised an opportunity to participate and being disappointed,” said Nancy Wyatt, president of the Family Child Care Council of the San Fernando Valley. “Some people are frightened. They don’t know what L.A. is going to come up with in terms of teacher requirements or whether families, intentionally or unintentionally, will be diverted from them.”

A Complex Enterprise

Universal preschool represents the most complex enterprise undertaken by the nine-member commission, which is appointed by the county Board of Supervisors and includes heads of county departments as well as community members. Its chairman is Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, and the executive director is Evelyn V. Martinez.

A state commission and 58 county ones were formed four years ago after voters approved a 50-cent tax on cigarettes to fund prenatal services and early childhood development programs. The Los Angeles County commission has spent about $500 million on services for newborns, family literacy and education programs and health initiatives.

A few other county commissions around the state have been criticized for spending funds unwisely. The commissions must report their finances to the state commission but there is little formal oversight. With this child-care initiative, public scrutiny is likely to increase in Los Angeles.

The L.A. County commission is enthusiastic but untested on such a major effort, said Bruce Fuller, a UC Berkeley education professor who has studied child-care issues. “But my own, biased, emotional view is that we should help them out, give them some rope and hope it will work,” he said.

The initiative has taken off locally because it has such broad appeal across lines of race, ethnicity, income and geography, commission members say. They concede that keeping people engaged through the detailed planning process could be difficult.

“We’re hearing from people highly regarded in the field about the need to stay excited, but at the same time be very deliberate and thoughtful on something as huge as this,” noted commission official Nuno.

The commission, insisted Executive Director Martinez, will “not be bureaucratic” in its planning. “We want to have some short-term objectives and will look at opportunities to expand preschool as soon as we find them.”

Los Angeles is tackling the issue as the movement for universal preschool grows across the nation, said James J. Gallagher, senior investigator at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute. Gallagher urged Los Angeles planners to secure the support of state and local officials.

Cindy Gallagher, who oversees New York’s preschool program, which started in 1998 and uses state general funds, also said public interest was essential. New York’s program delegates planning to local school districts, which must appoint community advisory boards. About 50,000 4-year-olds are enrolled in the free program, said Gallagher. “We put a lot of pressure on ourselves but we also engendered a real commitment” from the community, she said.