Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:00:00] I’m Ericka Cruz-Guevarra, and welcome to The Bay. Local news to keep you rooted. This school year, the state of California finished expanding transitional kindergarten to public schools around the state. And it’s been a godsend for families who now have the option of free childcare for their four-year-olds in a state where childcare can cost thousands. And this week, Governor Gavin Newsom described the rollout as a win for families.
Gavin Newsom [00:00:36] TK for all didn’t exist a few years ago, fully funded it, saving upwards of $17,000, $18,000 a year for families. You talk about an affordability agenda.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:00:47] But one unintended consequence of this expansion is that hundreds of preschools around the state have closed since TK came on the scene. And that means fewer childcare options for California’s younger kids. Today, KQED reporter Daisy Nguyen explains why preschools are struggling and the ripple effects it could have on the entire child care ecosystem. Tell me about this preschool that you visited in Crockett. Where’d you go exactly and what does it look like?
Daisy Nguyen [00:01:32] I visited Carquinez Garden School in Crockett. It’s a tiny little community in Contra Costa County just across the bridge, the Carquinez Bridge from Vallejo.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:01:45] Where the C&H Sugar Factory is, right?
Daisy Nguyen [00:01:48] That’s right. That’s what propelled that town. This school is right next to a regional park.
Children [00:02:00] I’m Cally and Julia and I’m Micah. That’s all you need to know about them.
Daisy Nguyen [00:02:07] I visited the classroom where there were kids, a range of ages, I would say somewhere between two and four, who were playing with kinetic sand.
Children [00:02:20] Did anybody take a nap today? Not me.
Daisy Nguyen [00:02:28] They were very chatty children.
Children [00:02:33] I’m doing dinosaur cookies. Yum, that looks delicious. Are you gonna put it in the oven? Yeah.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:02:46] And what exactly is this place, the Carquinez Garden School, Daisy, who does it serve and why did you want to visit this school in particular?
Daisy Nguyen [00:02:57] This is a preschool that serves children of a variety of age and they come from not only Crockett but just surrounding communities such as Benicia and Vallejo. It’s located in what’s called a child care desert where there are just too few options for child care to meet demand. It’s the only preschool in Crockett, first of all. And I heard that it was closing in June, so I wanted to go visit and see what it was all about and speak with the director of this school. Her name is Heather Posner.
Heather Posner [00:03:38] I go home tired every day, but I’m never bored. And there’s at least one time during the day where I will laugh hysterically at something that has happened.
Daisy Nguyen [00:03:47] Her philosophy is very much play-based. She has an extensive background in early childhood education. She founded the first preschool in a museum, the Bay Children’s Discovery Museum in Marin County.
Heather Posner [00:04:02] You know, we would take the kids for these huge epic hikes and like see coyotes and like seeing the children just be able to kind of unfold when they’re in nature and having that real deep play just was so special.
Daisy Nguyen [00:04:20] Is child-led learning, so whatever they’re curious about, that’s what the instructor will help guide them in their curiosity.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:04:30] So this school is what’s known as a community-based preschool. And as you mentioned, it’s one of the only ones sort of in its surrounding area. But what is exactly a community based preschool?
Daisy Nguyen [00:04:44] Community-based preschools are run by private tuition-charging businesses or nonprofit organizations that get some public funding to provide subsidized child care. They could be based out of a church or a child care center or, yeah, you know, a physical school. They offer early learning and child care for kids who are under the age of five who aren’t old enough yet for school. They could serving both families who are able to pay tuition and families who receive subsidies and choose this type of setting for their children. Families in California have so many choices when it comes to childcare. I think for working families who want their children to be in a licensed setting, these types of preschools play an important role in the larger childcare ecosystem.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:05:47] It sounds like this one school is serving quite a few different cities in this area of the Bay. But as you mentioned, it’s closing this summer and actually more and more preschools like the Carquinez Garden School are closing, right? Why is that?
Daisy Nguyen [00:06:09] There’s a new UC Berkeley study that’s found that in the years that California was expanding access to transitional kindergarten, a little less than 10% of these community-based preschools have closed. So TK is offered in public schools and it’s a free preschool program, essentially for four-year-olds. It’s something that for the first time this year, California offers it statewide for any child who turns four by September 1st, they’re eligible for a free year of pre-kindergarten. This past year, enrollment in TK increased by 20% statewide. It’s really been transformative, not only for school districts, but for families because it means they don’t have to pay thousands and thousands of dollars in preschool. As transitional kindergarten expanded across California, it’s offering a lot of opportunities for four-year-olds to go to enroll in public schools. But that means many of them are leaving these community-based centers. And as many of the leave, these community based centers are struggling financially to stay afloat.
Heather Posner [00:07:35] I mean, we went from 30 kids two years ago to 20 kids last year to 10 this year. And that’s not viable.
Daisy Nguyen [00:07:46] For Heather, she said that each year, she just saw fewer and fewer students enrolling in her program because they depend on older children to help them offset the cost of the more expensive care of younger children.
Heather Posner [00:08:06] It just is a relentless churn of trying to keep your ratios where they’re supposed to be and the learning and the experience of the children and families where you want it to be.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:08:51] Well, Daisy, I wanna talk about why this matters because I have to imagine for a lot of parents, it’s actually a huge relief to know that they now have this option to send their four-year-old to childcare, essentially for free. So why do these closures of these preschools matter, especially now that there’s this free, much less expensive option?
Daisy Nguyen [00:09:16] So in California, what the UC Berkeley researchers found was that about 1,100 community-based preschools have closed their doors. And the closures of those 1,100 preschools, they were licensed to serve around 32,000 young kids. And, you know, the experts say that these closures will likely increase prices in California where California has some of the highest child care prices in the nation.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:09:46] Because TK is only for four-year-olds. So that means all these other kids potentially still need childcare somewhere else outside of TK.
Daisy Nguyen [00:09:59] That’s right. Community-based preschools that are losing four-year-olds to, whether it’s transitional kindergarten or any public programs for four- year-olds, like if they’re in a wealthier neighborhood, they’re able to raise their price and there will be families willing to pay that. But that may not be the case in lower income neighborhoods.
Jessica Brown [00:10:19] So in New York City, they instituted Universal Pre-K. They did it very quickly, and I found that the whole decline in infant and toddler care at centers was in poorer areas of the city.
Daisy Nguyen [00:10:36] Jessica Brown is an economist at the University of South Carolina, and she has studied the child care market.
Jessica Brown [00:10:44] In poorer areas of the city, they are not able to raise prices and stay open because the parents can’t afford those higher rates and so therefore they close or they choose not to open.
Daisy Nguyen [00:10:54] In other states or municipalities that have experimented with offering universal preschool for four-year-olds, it causes a ripple effect in the child care industry.
Jessica Brown [00:11:13] There’s costs and benefits to all programs and we have to weigh those when deciding when to do them. The introduction of public pre-K for four-year-olds and TK in California, we do think that this is having an impact on the private child care market. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do those programs.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:11:36] So what other options then do families have, especially families of younger kids?
Daisy Nguyen [00:11:43] Lower-income families now are increasingly choosing unlicensed care. So they’re taking their vouchers, and they’re giving it to a family, friend, or neighbor to care for their children. Parents who, you know, they have the right to choose the form of care they want their children to be in. And with unlicensed care, what families gain is just a lot of flexibility. For licensed care, the reason why it’s considered high quality is because the provider has to follow a lot of rules. There is highly regulated industry, for example, in a community-based preschool or a child care center, you have to have at least one adult to supervise up to four babies. For example, there are high safety standards. They have to learn CPR, you know, all these things that the provider and educator are required to have to care for children.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:12:51] It sounds like it’s not necessarily that parents no longer have any options at all as a result of more and more of these preschools closing, but it sounds like the idea is that, one, the options that remain are getting more expensive, and that because we just have this childcare system that is so patchwork, and where universal childcare is still not a thing. That families really just need all the options that they can get. Yeah, absolutely.
Daisy Nguyen [00:13:27] I think the concern is that once these centers close, they probably will never reopen because it’s, as I mentioned, it’s such a regulated industry and that means for families, fewer options for licensed center bays or community preschool in their community.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:13:48] That’s a perfect segue back to the Carquinez Garden School in Crockett, which, as you mentioned, is closing in June. It’s gotta be hitting her hard. What does she say about what it means for a community like Crockett to lose a school like the Carquinez Garden school?
Daisy Nguyen [00:14:08] Some of the families with the younger children obviously have had to find another place for their children. That is disruptive for the kids who were really attached to this place and their teachers.
Heather Posner [00:14:20] Like, I feel more disappointed about closing the school than sad.
Daisy Nguyen [00:14:25] For Heather, she’s just sad for what the community is losing.
Heather Posner [00:14:30] I think that the thing that we lose beyond just the spots and the dollars and the jobs, right, there’s a lot of economic impact there. I just think the thing we lose is really the place where children can have that essential childhood. I’m sad for the children, but I’m disappointed in the systems that we have.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:15:04] Is there any help at all coming for these preschools, Daisy, especially at the state level?
Daisy Nguyen [00:15:12] Lawmakers are aware that this is happening. Policymakers were hoping that as more four-year-olds shift to TK, that would open up space in preschools for three-year olds, and that some of these child care centers would pivot to serving infants and toddlers. And that hasn’t really borne out. A lot of these providers say it’s very difficult to shift to providing care for younger children because of the cost. And so now there’s talk in Sacramento about shifting some funding from Prop 98, which is a guarantees funding for public schools, shifting some of that to community-based organizations that provide subsidized preschool for younger kids.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:16:06] My last question for you here, Daisy, it seems like the closure of these preschools is sort of an unintended consequence. But overall, I have to imagine that free childcare of any kind is needed, including the expansion of TK in California, and that a lot of parents really appreciate having that option. So what do you say to parents who are hearing this who love their TK?
Daisy Nguyen [00:16:38] I think it’s a great opportunity. I’ve done a story a couple months ago in Mendocino County where I just saw what a difference it was making for the students in the classroom and how it transformed the culture even of the elementary school. So for families who chose TK, it’s relief. I think it’s just that we have to think about the larger child care ecosystem and for families with children who are younger than four, who are not yet eligible for TK, they got to be able to have options too.
