It’s been more than a year since Tram Gonzalez opened Colorwings Kindergarten at his home in Portland, Oregon.
Of the 15 children enrolled in her program, 10 attended for free, passed by Portland voters in November 2020 and created a universal free kindergarten for all 3- and 4-year-olds who wished it.
This is her business faster and more than ever, and she considers her program’s robust registration and staffing to be preschool for all.
“Kindergarten for everyone opens so many doors for families,” says Gonzalez. Tuition fees – Necessary to cover operational costs including payroll calculations – Her program will not be fully competent immediately after opening without it. “It’s very expensive mortgage. ”
Shortly after voter approval, Preschool for All was paraded around policy and child development circles as an example of what a universal kindergarten initiative is and should be. Supporters said it was carefully devised to explain many of the details that often slip through the cracks of similar preschool proposals. It can have unintended consequences for the community’s early childhood system, including impacts on the seating of young children and young children in the community, inadequate supply, and labor shortages, leading to failed initiatives.
New York Times article from November 2020 Proposed The Multnomah County initiative is a “national model” for other parts of the United States and could become a “blueprint.” Today, almost halfway through the passage at the ballot box and the deadline to reach universality in 2030, all of Multnomah kindergarten initiatives are on track. So how about the rollout?
measurement
Successful Universal Kindergarten initiatives usually share several common characteristics, and GG Weisenfeld, associate director of technical assistance at the National Institute of Early Education (NIEER), has worked with cities and states to design and implement Pre-K systems.
First, she says there needs to be a system in place to support the program. Usually with people who can advocate for the job and strong leaders who will move it forward.
After that, you will need funds. It’s stable and substantial funds. Universal Pre-K programs tend to have more lasting potential when paid through guaranteed funding flows for withdrawing from city budgets, such as tax initiatives, Weisenfeld said. In the latter case, preschool programs are vulnerable to changes in governance and recession. (Multnomah kindergarten is everything Funding By income tax on high-profit residents. )
Next is to understand the needs, desires and reality of the community in which the program works. This includes understanding the landscape of toddlers and toddlers’ care. This is a resource that is even scarce than preschool slots in almost every part of America and where and how to serve children with special needs. Part of this is creating preschool programs that honor the mixed delivery system of early childhood education. Families can choose from a variety of educational settings, including center-based, home-based, faith-based, and K-12 school settings.
Multnomah County’s Preschool initiative has all these ingredients baked into the design. This is important, says Weisenfeld.
The program has ambitious designs and is sloppy when it comes to implementation. That’s not what Weisenfeld saw in kindergarten for everyone.
“They didn’t cut the corner,” she says. “They still want high quality. They still want fairness. That’s impressive.”
For example, many universal kindergarten programs overlook assistant teachers and their pay, Weisenfeld says. It’s not a multinoma. Some programs include home-based providers, but are framed as inferior options for families. It’s not like this here either.
They also collect and report data on program development, which they find particularly impressive, says Weisenfeld.
Often, Universal kindergarten programs begin as “magnificent plans,” then scale and shrink until they become the original form of kernel. “I don’t think this program has been reduced that way. It’s staying,” she says. “I think they’ll be more successful than elsewhere.”
Weisenfeld adds Nier’s colleague: “We’re constantly sharing information about the program. We’ll tell people in the city, ‘Why don’t you talk to Multnomah County?’ ”
Slow and steady progress
Kindergarten for all deployments is on track faster than planned, with some measures. According to Leslie Burns, the initiative leader and director of the county’s kindergarten and early learning department. But she admits that some Portlanders feel it is moving slowly. Local news coverage The implementation has a tone of impatience.
In reality, Burns says it takes time to get the system from where it is needed. There’s a huge amount of construction and construction that needs to be done.
“We’re doing a real, intentional development,” Burns says. “The average consumer, or even the politician, don’t really understand them. “What are you doing there? Why does everyone have kindergarten slots?”
It may not be a particularly satisfying approach for voters who have seen the initiative slowly and steadily on the ballot. They were hoping that the bubble had approved and tuition-free Universal Kindergarten initiative would soon come to fruition. But that’s what you need to avoid the pitfalls of other programs that have attempted and failed. Ironically, the same thoughtfulness is part of what first made a great focus on Martinoma County proposal.
By carefully expanding, for nearly a decade, Multnomah County can successfully make its commitment to protecting the supply of infant and toddler care in its community, building a supply of kindergarten slots to meet program demand, improving early childhood workforce wages and profits, and improving K-2 teachers’ wages and profits.
“Every year we’ve been around, we’ve seen and surpassed all of the kindergarten goals,” Burns says with confidence.
Preschool for all funding of at least 2,225 kindergarten seats in the community compared to the 2,000 goals for this grade. Approximately 800 of these seats is new to the county. In other words, the program opened or expanded capacity since its deployment began. This includes ten seats in Gonzalez’s home-based program.
Next year, the target is 3,000 seats by the end of the 2025-26 academic year. However, according to Burns and her team, there will be 3,500 seats by the time the school year begins in September, with another 300 in January.
The goal is to create 11,000 kindergartens in every slot by 2030. This should provide seating for every 3 and 4 years of age in the county of interest, leaders estimate. (Today, Multnomah County has around 13,900 children of that age.)
To support all supply buildings, there is a mix of all kindergartens, namely grants and loans, that is, grants and loans, that is, grants and loans. Some programs used these funds for renovations and repairs, while others built new facilities. In the current grade, the initiative has awarded $5.5 million to 25 different projects.
In addition to startup Grant Gonzalez, received to help purchase furniture, learning materials and kitchenware, Gonzalez has obtained one of the facility grants for everyone from Plaschool. She used some of the $26,000 she received to build obstacle courses in her garden, draw a garage, and begin a garden where the kids finally harvest and eat.
“The obstacle course is a dream come true,” says Gonzalez. “I was able to design what I really wanted. It happened in real life. The kids love it.”
As a former childhood teacher, she is grateful for the kindergarten initiatives to pay teachers livable wages.
Median wages for kindergarten teachers in the Portland Metro area are just under $18 an hour, according to the Multnomah County Department of Kindergarten and Early Learning. Between 2024 and 25, teachers with a bachelor’s degree working in kindergarten programs for all should lead them, achieving their goal of $39.23 per hour.
It is a type of wage increases that could be transformative for early childhood educators, bringing life to long-term fields.
Kindergarten teachers also access health insurance, retirement plans, paid leave and other benefits that are regular features of K-12 school district employment, but can be challenging in early childhood.
“We know that a lot of people leave to go to work in the school district. “We want it.” [to have] It’s a similar product, so it’s not an excuse to jump the ship. There’s an increase built into what you pay for slots each year. ”
When Gonzalez was the lead teacher, she made $20 an hour and thought it was okay, she says. Currently, the minimum she can pay an assistant teacher is about $22 per hour. “What I can offer to our staff is really great.
The program management has also worked very well in Gonzalez’s experience. Each month, at the beginning of the month, the county sends a direct deposit into a bank account based on the number of children attending kindergarten for all. She says it’s about $22,000 per child per year, or just over $1,800 a month. With that money, she pays staff, covers operational costs, and maintains the rest as profits.
She may have opened kindergartens for everyone, with or without kindergarten, Gonzalez said. But she doubts that she will be as successful as she had not had it.
Her five-year plan, she says, is to open a centre-based kindergarten with three classrooms. If not preschool for everyone, it takes her 10 years, but it takes easily.
“I have a lot to say about it,” says Gonzalez. “I know this system isn’t perfect, but for me it was a really great experience. I was able to open my own program.
