As universal pre-kindergarten grows in popularity, more states and cities are trying to determine policies that develop the educator workforce and ensure all age-eligible children have access.
To that end, a group of New England mayors met earlier this week in Providence, R.I., to discuss improving access to and the quality of early childhood education. At least four states and the District of Columbia offer universal pre-K to 4-year-olds, according to the Education Commission of the States, and eight more states have universal eligibility, meaning programs are open to all 4-year-olds but not necessarily available to everyone. Some cities, like Boston, have their own programs.
In Providence, 83% of 4-year-olds have access to some , whether it鈥檚 full-time, part-time, public, or private, said Mayor Brett Smiley. During the conference, Smiley touted Rhode Island鈥檚 mixed delivery model, which allows families to choose from different programs, including Rhode Island鈥檚 state-funded pre-K program, federally funded Head Start program for children from low-income households, and local community pre-school programs.
Additionally, Rhode Island is among the five states that meet all 10 of the quality benchmarks for pre-K, set by the National Institute for Early Education Research, a nonpartisan organization focused on early childhood education access and quality.
During the conference, Smiley called for more federal support for early childhood education.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 do this alone; there is no local community that could fill the gap that the federal government has the potential to create,鈥� he said, referencing Head Start, which has experienced funding delays and policy whiplash under the Trump administration. Even with the government reopened, some Head Start programs remain fully or partially closed, according to the .
Smiley shared more details about the city鈥檚 efforts to expand pre-K access and the importance of workforce development in a conversation with Education Week.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Why is hosting this conference important now?
One, there鈥檚 a host of uncertainty at the federal level, and it鈥檚 an important opportunity for us to come together and coalesce around a shared agenda for federal advocacy to make sure that we don鈥檛 slip backwards in terms of how much early childhood we鈥檙e able to offer.
Two鈥攕pecifically for mayors鈥攁ll of us have a different level of authority over our K-12 school systems. The local context for education varies pretty widely, but all mayors have a role in early childhood and child care. In a world in which everyone is focused on the affordability crisis, we know that child care is one of a family鈥檚 top expenses.
Prioritizing early childhood education is one of the most meaningful ways that all mayors can help lower the costs of living for families in their communities.
What do you hope to learn from other leaders who work on universal pre-K programs?
In Providence, we have a mixed delivery model where we have pre-K that鈥檚 offered in our public schools. We certainly have a lot of Head Start providers and seats, but then we also have home-based providers.
Other communities have different systems; we鈥檙e looking to learn from one another for where there are opportunities to do more, to reach more families, and how to afford [providing] more seats.
Everybody is resource-constrained, and particularly if there鈥檚 going to be federal cuts, we鈥檙e going to need to be innovative. We hope to share those innovations about different ways to deliver early childhood education based upon what鈥檚 working in other communities.
Only 23% of 4-year-olds in Providence had access to a state-funded pre-K seat in 2022-23. What do you make of the statistic, and how do you think the state can meet the demand for pre-K?
That gets back to the delivery model鈥攖he Rhode Island Pre-K program is full-day and high-quality, which is the gold standard. We support its expansion.
We鈥檙e the largest community in the state, but we鈥檙e also not putting all of our eggs in that basket or waiting on state action to take place because we can reach families in other ways. The academic research is clear that any pre-K is better than no pre-K, and why we want to continue to expand.
The alternative might be just child care or staying at home a half day or a different delivery method, which could be in-house care from a provider or a center鈥攊t鈥檚 a step in the right direction and will still yield benefits.
In Providence, we鈥檝e been advocating at the statehouse every year for increased funding for early childhood, but we鈥檙e not relying on that to reach universal access.
How can the federal government support early education?
I think the most impactful thing the federal government can do is to increase funding for Head Start. In the proposed federal budget, Head Start is level-funded, but in a world in which the costs for everything, including wages for early childhood 糖心动漫vlog, are going up, level funding is actually a cut.
The only way you鈥檒l be able, as a provider, to work on level funding is either [by] laying off staff or reducing seats. So, at a minimum, Head Start funding needs to keep up with the cost of inflation.
We would hope that they actually would expand it鈥攄ollar for dollar, early childhood education remains an incredibly good investment, and the cost to educate a 4-year-old, and help with early development, pays off for the rest of their educational career. It鈥檚 an excellent federal investment, and it鈥檚 probably the most important thing that the federal government can do.
The other area which is related is the upward pressure on wages. Of course, we have to and want to pay our early childhood 糖心动漫vlog more. Through the pandemic, there have been a lot of people who鈥檝e left the field鈥攎any providers are struggling to attract early childhood 糖心动漫vlog who are credentialed. Workforce development programs are another excellent investment from the federal government or our state governments to get more people into the profession and to help with the wage gap.
In many places, including here in Providence, you can make more as a kindergarten teacher than as a pre-K teacher, and they鈥檙e both important. We don鈥檛 want to have to choose, but it鈥檚 leaving classrooms empty because there鈥檚 no educator to fill them.
Do you have any proposed changes to help increase the workforce?
There鈥檚 a pipeline program that we鈥檙e developing now where you can be a teacher鈥檚 assistant without a credential, but we want to move them up the career ladder. We鈥檙e exploring a program whereby we provide community college courses, either with grant funding or other public funds, to upskill those [teaching assistants].
These are adults who have already indicated an interest in the field and are already in our classroom working with our kids, but because they鈥檙e not credentialed, they鈥檙e not able to earn the teaching position. [This] will help them earn more money for their family [and] also help us expand access. Upskilling and creating a career ladder for professionals already in the field could solve multiple problems at once.
