Value of Community Preschools

President Obama's "Preschool for All" proposal calls for directing funding for low- and moderate-income 4-year-olds through the public schools.  Many advocates are encouraging the administration to maintain the positive features of the current mixed delivery system.  A recent New York Times article, "Private Preschools See More Public Funds as Classes Grow," shared some interesting points about a mixed delivery system:

"Starting this fall, under an expansion led by [Chicago] Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the number of Catholic schools in the city receiving taxpayer money for preschool will nearly double.  Across the country, states and districts are increasingly funneling public funds to religious schools, private nursery schools, and a variety of community-based nonprofit organizations that conduct preschool classes.

"According to the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University, about one-third of students enrolled in state-financed preschool programs attend classes conducted outside the public schools.  In some states, the proportion is much higher: in New Jersey, close to 60 percent of students in publicly financed preschool are enrolled in private, nonprofit, or Head Start centers, and in Florida, about 84 percent of 4-year-olds in state-financed prekindergarten attend classes run by private, faith-based, or family centers....

“'High-quality pre-K can happen in church basements, community centers, or within the Y.M.C.A., as long as the standards are there,' said Lisa Guernsey, the director of early education at the New America Foundation, a nonprofit policy institute....

"Frequently overcrowded public schools do not always have the space to add preschool classrooms. And many preschool classes — particularly those that serve low-income working families — are embedded in broader day care centers that operate longer days than a typical public school."

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