You’ll have to look hard to find anyone with anything bad to say about preschool. Numerous studies show that a good preschool education not only prepares children for kindergarten, but that it has a lasting effects on their social skills and emotional maturity.
While the importance of preschool is relatively uncontroversial, a thornier issue is whether Proposition 82, the Preschool for All initiative on the June 6 ballot, is the best way to make preschool accessible to every child in the state.
If Prop. 82 passes, all California 4-year-olds would have access to free, high-quality preschool programs funded by the state and administered by local county offices of education.
Currently, federal, state and some county programs offer subsidized preschool to children from very low-income families.
Prop. 82 would amend the state constitution to guarantee that all children born on or after June 6, 2006, could attend half-day preschool programs, five-days-a-week.
Unlike the public school system, attendance would be voluntary, and private preschools would be eligible to participate.
The program would be funded by taxing the income of the state’s highest earners — the approximately one-half of 1 percent of the population earning more than $400,000 per person or $800,000 per couple. This would boost the state’s top “marginal” tax rate from 9.3 percent to 11 percent beginning January 1, 2007.
The tax is expected to raise $2.1 billion in the 2007-08 fiscal year, and $2.6 billion by 2010, the first year that free preschool would be offered. It would provide about $6,000 per student in annual funding, according to the state’s legislative analyst. Funding from other state and federal programs could boost the amount by as much as $2,000 per student.
It would mean big increases in both salaries and education qualifications for preschool teachers. Preschool teachers would have to be paid on par with public school teachers, which could more than double their current Salaries. Prop. 82 would extend public-school teachers’ collective bargaining rights to preschool teachers, even those working in private preschools.
By July 2016, preschool teachers would have to have four-year college degrees and a new early childhood education credential, and classroom aides would need 48 units of college classes and 24 units of early childhood education classes.
Currently, there are no educational requirements for aides and only about 2 1/2 years of college courses and early childhood education classes are required for teachers in state preschools. The requirements are even lower for licensed preschools.
INFORMATION
• An in-depth look at what Prop. 82 would mean for local parents, schools and private preschools is running in next week’s issue of the Almanac.• Information about Prop. 82 is available at the League of Women Voters site, SmartVoter.org, by clicking on “California Statewide Primary and Local,” or at the San Mateo County elections site, ShapeTheFuture.org. Backers of Preschool for All have information at YesOn82.com. Arguments from opponents are at NoProp82.org.
