California wants to provide preschool for all. But districts face a rocky road ahead
Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Wednesday, May 10. This is reporter Jenny Gold and audience engagement editor Kate Sequeira, the duo heading the Los Angeles Times’ new community funded early childhood education initiative. (We have a lot of great content coming, so stay tuned!)
As school draws to a close, California is winding down the first year of what is expected to become the largest universal preschool program in the country. By the 2025-26 school year, all 4-year-olds will be eligible to enroll in transitional kindergarten. Get used to a new acronym in education: TK.
In its first year, however, interest has been lower than expected among families, and school districts are still scrambling to put basic necessities in place. Without knowing how many students will actually enroll in the coming years, planning ahead for classroom facilities and staff is a real challenge.
This is the first time in nearly 55 years that California is adding an additional school year, following the establishment of kindergarten in 1967. Both TK and kindergarten are optional grade levels.
Here’s a quick overview of how this expansion is going so far:
Districts are handling the growth, but expecting challenges
School districts across California are dealing with overall enrollment declines, exacerbated by the pandemic. Kindergarten has been especially hard hit.
With empty classroom space, districts were able to accommodate the first wave of transitional kindergarten students, shuffling classrooms and teachers. In fact, many are depending on this new crop of students to help make up for enrollment losses and ease financial worries — funding is based partly on attendance and enrollment.
But district administrators are already looking toward capacity struggles ahead, as they prepare to welcome children during the next three years of growth.
The state requires new TK classrooms to be extra-large and equipped with a bathroom, including tiny toilets and extra-low sinks. Some districts have pushed kindergarteners out of their regular classrooms to other parts of their campuses as schools accommodate the growing group of 4-year-olds.
Hiring enough aides is proving difficult
For every 12 TK students, there must be one adult in the classroom, which means a typical 24-student class must be equipped with both a teacher and an aide. That ratio was supposed to drop further next year — down to 10:1. The governor has proposed delaying the change.
Finding instructional aides has been a problem.
Many school districts are competing for service industry workers — and school salaries are often lower than other jobs.
“It’s Mathematics 101,” said Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), architect of the TK expansion. “They can work really hard to craft an amazing 4-year-old in a TK classroom making a little over $15 an hour, or they can help craft the perfect burrito supreme in some areas making $30 an hour.”
One school district’s TK experience
Long Beach was ready to absorb nearly 1,200 new TK students this year and moved from a part day to a full day program.
Peeking inside the classroom of Micaela Moreno, who teaches TK at Oropeza Elementary in Long Beach, offers a look at 4-year-olds in action.
Her classroom is now equipped with new educational toys that encourage more play-based learning — a mini-kitchen, a sand table, and bins of colorful blocks and puzzles. She uses those toys to subtly teach academic lessons about writing and numbers, work on motor and sensory skills and integrate social and emotional skills like sharing and conversation.
She laughs, saying that when it comes to academic learning, she has to “sneak it in there.”
Since the pandemic, Moreno has also focused more on social and emotional learning. She integrates more opportunities for teamwork and monitors how her students handle disagreement more closely.
“Kids come with a lot of situations where they’re afraid, they’re scared because they’ve been indoors for so long. They’re so young, and their first experiences have been like, ‘wear your mask, don’t talk to strangers because they could be sick,’” she explained. “We have to undo that.”
Long Beach, like other school districts, is planning to add more TK classrooms next year. At a time of declining overall K-12 enrollment, many school district administrators are crossing their fingers that California’s newest grade level will attract more students as word spreads about the program.
And now, here’s what’s happening across California, from Ryan Fonseca:
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POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
Sen. Dianne Feinstein is back in Washington after her months-long, much-debated absence. The 89-year-old senator has missed 91 votes, prompting calls from some of her Democratic colleagues in Congress that she resign. San Francisco Chronicle
Which belts will California tighten as the state braces for a multibillion-dollar budget shortfall? Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to present his latest spending plan Friday. Some of his fellow Democrats are proposing raising taxes on large corporations, though Newsom has already signaled his opposition to that route. The Sacramento Bee
State regulators failed to respond swiftly and effectively to warning signs that Silicon Valley Bank was headed for calamity, according to a new state report. California’s Financial Protection & Innovation Department pointed to the bank’s high level of uninsured deposits and said officials would focus more on those levels moving forward. The Mercury News
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CRIME, COURTS AND POLICING
A not-yet-released report from L.A.’s transportation department concludes that unarmed civilian workers could handle most traffic enforcement in Los Angeles — if the city also dramatically upgraded its streets to deter dangerous driving. The city’s pending considerations come as traffic deaths surge in L.A. Experts point to “self-enforcing” streets — features that compel drivers to slow down and pay attention to the world outside their windshields — and automated enforcement (e.g. speed cameras) as effective alternatives to traditional police enforcement. Los Angeles Times
Thirteen people have been arrested on suspicion of selling fentanyl-laced drugs that caused at least a dozen fatal overdoses in Southern California. These latest arrests are part of a multi-year partnership between federal and local authorities targeting dealers tied to fatal fentanyl overdoses. Los Angeles Times
HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Back in January, I wrote about offshore wind’s potential in the waters off California and the challenges that remain to get turbines afloat and spinning. One key challenge was building out ports to properly assemble the massive machinery. Now, the Port of Long Beach aims to do just that, releasing its plans for an expansion to create the largest offshore wind turbine facility in any U.S. port. Los Angeles Times
How will climate change affect farming in California? Some farmers are experimenting with new crops they’re hoping will thrive in drier conditions, like mangoes, agave, avocados and dragonfruit. CalMatters
The trio of ships that make up the Balboa Island Ferry have been taking people back and forth between the island and Newport Beach for over a century. The California Air Resources Board recently targeted the vessels and similar short-run ferries for conversion to zero-emission engines, which must happen by 2025. The ferry’s owner said the cost and compounding technical issues make switching infeasible. Times columnist Gustavo Arellano asks: “Why does a mom-and-pop business ... need to be a guinea pig in California’s push to become a clean-air paradise?” Los Angeles Times
CALIFORNIA CULTURE
Some in the entertainment industry have dubbed the current writers’ work stoppage “the Netflix strike” as some union members direct their frustrations to the streaming giant. Writers argue that Netflix upended much of the process of how series are made, which rippled across the industry and now threatens their livelihoods. Los Angeles Times
Given the fact that George Berkeley was a slaveholder who also advocated for violence against Native American children, should UC Berkeley be renamed? Just this week, Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, removed the philosopher’s name from its library. A university spokesperson said there are no plans right now for the Bay Area campus. San Francisco Chronicle
The L.A. Lakers are one win away from a trip to the Western Conference Finals after a thrilling Game 4 win over the Golden State Warriors on Monday. Game 5 tips off at 7 p.m. on the Warriors’ home turf. Los Angeles Times
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AND FINALLY
Today’s California landmark is from Jeoffry Gordon of Santa Cruz: the pristine views of Monterey Bay from West Cliff Drive.
Jeoffry writes:
Beautiful Monterey Bay is just down the road from where I live. Daily walks with my dog are always beautiful and meditative. They were an especially rejuvenating escape during COVID surges.
If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)
Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.
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