{"id":285784,"date":"2026-04-25T17:37:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T17:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/285784\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T17:37:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T17:37:12","slug":"california-must-deliver-on-preschool-for-middle-class-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/285784\/","title":{"rendered":"California must deliver on preschool for middle-class families"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Preschool<\/a>A child dances during a transitional kindergarten class at First Street Elementary School in Los Angeles in April. (File photo by Ethan Swope\/Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Raising a family becomes ever more costly, from soaring gas prices to rising health premiums, as President Trump nudges prices higher, forgetting his promise to lift middle-class households.<\/p>\n

\"Opinion<\/a><\/p>\n

Closer to home, progressive local leaders stumble as well \u2014 after promising to ease the astronomical cost of child care, a key to raising a family in San Diego.<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom \u2014 buoyed by Assemblymember David Alvarez<\/a> \u2014 pledged to deliver a two-step fix back in 2021, starting with free pre-K for all 4-year-old children. Now, distracted by his presidential campaign, Newsom stands by while hundreds of nonprofit pre-K\u2019s shutter<\/a> their classrooms across San Diego County, at the very moment that parents desperately search for affordable options.<\/p>\n

Once his signature issue, Newsom has grown transitional kindergarten, a new grade level in public schools. So-called TK now reaches 9,000 additional 4-year-olds across the county each year, relative to enrollments prior to COVID. Newsom\u2019s notable achievement \u2014 classrooms built-out by local educators \u2014 saves parents upward of $18,000 yearly, families who once paid through the nose for pricey pre-K.<\/p>\n

But the collateral promise by Alvarez and Newsom seems long forgotten: Pivoting San Diego\u2019s nearly 1,000 nonprofit pre-K\u2019s to serve toddlers and 3-year-olds, after losing their 4-year-olds to TK. Less than one-third of parents raising a 3-year-old can find a pre-K spot, no matter how expensive, half the enrollment rate enjoyed by New York families.<\/p>\n

Scores of community-rooted preschools in San Diego, unable to swivel to toddlers and younger kids, continue to go belly-up, shedding more than 7,000 pre-K slots<\/a> since 2019, according to a new University of California study.<\/p>\n

The steady demise of nonprofit pre-K\u2019s means fewer affordable options for working parents. Children attending TK must be fetched early afternoon from schools, impossible for parents laboring full time. In contrast, nonprofit pre-K\u2019s have run for decades from early morning to evening, along with summers and school holidays.<\/p>\n

Alvarez \u2014 chairing the Assembly committee that oversees pre-K spending \u2014 has endeavored to backstop community pre-K\u2019s, boosting spending on 2- and 3-year-olds and extending eligibility for free preschool to households earning less than $135,000 per year.<\/p>\n

But these fresh options for middle-class families remain little known outside the state capitol, as few parents or nonprofits have become aware of new funding for kids, zero to 3 years of age. Even when attempting to score this new financing, community pre-K\u2019s face a bureaucratic maze of procedures in Sacramento.<\/p>\n

As this year\u2019s budget negotiations get underway with Newsom, Alvarez can right this lurching ship. Modest new investments in advertising for parents, along with coaching for small pre-K\u2019s, could widen access for families. To ease teacher shortages, policy makers can support training in infant and toddler development. Lawmakers could simplify how families qualify for public pre-K, rather than asking parents to complete a mountain of forms.<\/p>\n

The state education department is rightfully requesting $123 million to ease these barriers to family access and bolster the capacity of nonprofits to invite in additional families. Yet, Alvarez voted last year to end pandemic-era aid to nonprofit pre-K\u2019s, a move that will hurry their demise across the county.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tight budget year in Sacramento. But revenues earmarked for education are rising, stoked by ballooning tech stocks and taxes on capital gains. Lawmakers could house new pre-K\u2019s in schools emptied by the declining enrollment of older children, as pursued by Los Angeles school board this month.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s crazy for schools and nonprofits to compete for a shrinking count of young children. Instead, inventive agencies, like San Diego nonprofit Education Enrichment Systems, operates toddler and pre-K classrooms on Vista Unified school sites in North County. It\u2019s a win-win for both agencies: inviting families with young children into the public schools and generating fresh financing for educators and nonprofits.<\/p>\n

The collapse of nonprofit pre-K\u2019s will accelerate until lawmakers recall their promise to broaden access to preschool for a wider rainbow of families. Then, they must needle the governor\u2019s slumbering bureaucracy to lower entry hurdles for parents and foster the shift of small programs to serve younger children. Economically stretched parents can ill-afford Sacramento\u2019s languishing momentum.<\/p>\n

Bruce Fuller, a UC Berkeley sociologist, is author of Debating Childhood and Preschool<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A child dances during a transitional kindergarten class at First Street Elementary School in Los Angeles in April.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,49851,4110,457,5466,11749,31267],"class_list":{"0":"post-285784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-david-alvarez","12":"tag-funding","13":"tag-gavin-newsom","14":"tag-nonprofits","15":"tag-preschool","16":"tag-transitional-kindergarten"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}