Skip to content
News

Rutgers NIEER proposes plan for universal, high-quality preschool in US

Karin Garver, an education policy specialist at the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education, said that high-quality, universal preschool programs not only benefit children but would also add employment opportunities for adults. – Photo by Rutgers.edu

The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education has recently proposed a two-part plan to expand and increase preschool care to 5 million more 3 and 4-year-olds in the U.S.

Approximately 1.8 million children in the U.S. currently have access to affordable public preschool care compared to the approximately 5 million more children that need it, according to a press release.

“Only about a third of our 4-year-olds across the nation are being served in publicly funded preschool programs and less than a quarter of our 3-year-olds,” said Karin Garver, an early childhood education policy specialist at NIEER.

In addition to the shortage of affordable preschool care, she said the U.S. is lacking in the quality of preschool care as well. Increased spending is needed to improve both quality and access in order to get the programs where they need to be, Garver said.

NIEER’s plan to expand high-quality and affordable preschool care would be done through a state and federal partnership, and would initially prioritize children in low-income families, she said.

“Our plan entails the federal government taking responsibility for funding, half of the per-child cost of all low-income children,” Garver said. “Then, the states would assume the cost of the other half of the cost of serving all low-income children with the idea that eventually then states would take on responsibility for more than just low-income children but also all children moving forward.”

The plan intends to expand high-quality preschool to 2.5 million more low-income children by 2040, and all 3 and 4-year-olds in all 50 states by 2050, according to the release. In its current state, the U.S. would not achieve free, universal preschool before 2100.

Expanding upon already existent programs is a key factor to implementing the two-part plan, Garver said. These programs include the Preschool Development Grant, instituted under former President Barack Obama's Administration, as well the Head Start program, which was established in the 1960s.

“It's about taking children who are being underserved in, perhaps, lower-quality programs and providing them with the resources to increase their quality so that kids are already being served, or being served more appropriately, and then also bringing in children who don't have any access to these programs,” she said.

Additionally, Garver said the plan will implement aspects such as the 10 Quality Standards benchmark, which includes requirements such as a Bachelor’s degree for all preschool teachers, in order to increase minimum standards for quality preschool programs.

Other aspects of the plan include providing children with full-day preschool 180 days a year and supporting competitive salaries for educators, according to the release.

Overall, research shows that high-quality preschool programs greatly benefit children not just into their elementary years, but into their adult years as well, she said.

“It impacts children in terms of needing fewer special education services, (they) are less likely to be held back in school (and) they're more likely to be reading on grade level … And so, I think, for the children themselves, there are clear benefits for extending these programs,” Garver said.

In addition, implementing the two-part plan would highly benefit lower and working-class families that rely on preschool care for full-time employment, benefitting the population as a whole, she said.

“We see access increased to high-quality programs, (and) we see more adults who are able to be more present in the workforce,” Garver said. “So, having high-quality programs not only benefits children, but it benefits our workforce as well.”


Related Articles


Join our newsletterSubscribe