Recently, Superintendent Delaine Eastin announced the results of her task force to establish universal preschool for every 3 and 4 year old child in California. Superintendent Eastin seems to have forgotten that we reformed welfare last year, and our schools are experiencing an increasing crisis with school facilities.
Universal preschool causes more problems than it solves.
Instead, we should concentrate on ways to help at-risk children currently lost in the system, not institutionalize new welfare programs for the wealthy. The first and most glaring problem with this concept of universal preschool is the word universal. Many families in California currently have access to affordable preschools. In fact, California has almost 400,000 children, ages 2 to 5 years old in both private and public licensed child care centers. This does not even include the home-based day care centers or several other healthy options for young children.