If you’re in Colorado, then, like me, you’ve probably been seeing headline after headline about Universal Pre-K (UPK), which is rolling out right now. You might have seen stories about the state being sued by school districts and Catholic schools. Or maybe you’ve seen all the stories about confusion regarding payment schedules and covered hours per child. So, what’s really going on? Here’s my take.
Background
Since voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition EE in 2020, legislators and bureaucrats have been working pedal to the medal to get everything in place. This included standing up a new department, passing massive legislation, and designing new software to provide a unified enrollment system. And across the state, Local Coordinating Organizations (LCOs) have been established and are trying to help providers and families navigate the process.
Short version: It’s been a bumpy road
This is all a massive undertaking, so I’m not surprised that it has been bumpy along the way. A unified enrollment system is meant to provide some equity in the enrollment process and “match” families with providers, but it is very different from what everyone is used to and it relied on a brand-new piece of software with a mysterious algorithm.
In addition, Colorado committed to a mixed-delivery system that includes participation from school districts, private centers, and home-based providers. Most states do this, but many of them require access and funding to filter through the school district - which creates an administrative cost and can harm private providers. Paying all of these different providers directly based on the number of children they are serving is also complicated.
You may not know that the business model for providers usually relies on providing care for older children. Some do this exclusively, and others also take infants and toddlers. Because the staff ratios required for older children are much lower, the cost to provide care for them is lower, and so care provided for this population is effectively subsidizing the infant and toddler care in that facility. If preschoolers are funneled to a different system, then it becomes incredibly difficult for a provider to continue to provide care for infants and toddlers.
So you’re probably asking: wouldn’t it be easier to just give all the money to public schools and have them provide preschool?
I would ask: Easier for whom? Easier for the state government? Almost certainly. Easier for school districts? Probably.
But what about parents, families, and kids? If you’ve ever tried to maintain a full-time job while dealing with a school schedule, you probably know the answer to this one. nearly 2/3 of kids under 6 in the state have working parents. That means they need not just the 10-15 hours a week of preschool that is paid for under UPK, they also need someone to watch their kids so they can work.
Think about what this looks like for a 7-year-old in the school system… for me, it means leaving meetings early or arriving late so my kid can take the bus, begging neighbors and friends to help me drive him between school and his after-school activities (which cost me an arm and a leg, by the way), and scheduling multiple playdates a week with other families so that we can take turns working.
What about for a 4-year-old? Well, turns out there aren’t a lot of afterschool activities, there often isn’t bus service, and a playdate takes a lot more hands-on supervision… Hence, the (very messy, but very necessary) mixed delivery system.
My Verdict: Let’s Wait and See
Should we throw our hands up and say it won’t work? I don’t think so. I say let’s keep pushing on our state leadership to improve the system for families and providers. Let’s keep demanding a system that actually works for working families. And let’s give everyone some time to work the kinks out.
What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
