Time for pre-K for all Long Island children

Last school year, 68% of Long Island's 4-year-olds landed universal prekindergarten seats.

That's hardly "universal." It's the fourth lowest percentage of New York State's 10 regions. Yet it's significant progress from 2020, when just 31% of 4-year-olds here got spots.

The time to make full-day pre-K available to every Long Island child has come.

The benefits of early education are clear. According to the state Board of Regents, exposure to academics and socioemotional learning makes children "better prepared for kindergarten, less likely to repeat a grade or drop out of high school," and helps identify essential intervention needs.

Bigger picture, it helps "reduce the disparities that are often associated with race, culture, ethnicity, language, citizenship status, and socio-economic level" and studies even point to increased earnings, better health and positive social behavior down the line as adults. Plus, the hours in school help relieve the child care burden in our high cost of living area, where many households rely on dual-income working parents.

In New York City, 9 out of 10 eligible 4-year-olds are enrolled in UPK programs because the city's education structure and different funding mechanism allowed for faster implementation. For Nassau and Suffolk counties, UPK is admittedly more complicated to administer. The offerings vary among the 121 school districts with elementary education — some programs are half-day, some are full-day and some partner with community-based organizations. Many have limited spots that are awarded by lottery. Eleven districts have no programs at all.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed executive budget for the next fiscal year aims to balance this discrepancy with New York City by allotting millions of dollars for school districts to expand universal prekindergarten statewide. Its goal: seats for every eligible 4-year-old by the 2028-29 school year. It's ambitious, but an important impetus to move UPK forward.

The challenges districts cite preventing universality are valid but not insurmountable. First is funding. If underfunded or inconsistently funded by the state, mandated UPK costs would fall on district taxpayers. Under Hochul's plan, today's myriad program funding mechanisms are consolidated into one allocation of $10,000 per pupil, or the district's current per-pupil funding under its state aid formula.

Next comes logistics. Districts without space need to figure out partnerships or identify underused places in their facilities. This state funding needs to allow for capital improvements, a past limitation. With some districts' enrollments falling, they should creatively repurpose spaces. Additionally, before and after hours child care offerings need to be available at an affordable cost. Some families pass up UPK seats to avoid changing locations for day care when the school day ends.

Perhaps most important is the matter of staffing. The programs need enough funds to compensate certified teachers or child care professionals at mandated ratios, necessary to teach and care for 4-year-olds.

Early education is too important for seats to be decided by a lottery. Every Long Island child must win.