Colorado officials announced this week that the state’s universal preschool program is a major success, having successfully enrolled a large number of children in a system still waiting to become good.
The Denver Post reported that Colorado ranks third nationally for preschool access for 4-year-olds, with about 70% enrolled in programs nearly three years after the state launched universal preschool. State leaders celebrated the ranking while gently stepping over the part where Colorado met only two of 10 preschool quality benchmarks.
“We are proud to be near the top in access,” said one early childhood official, standing beside a large ceremonial banner reading Quantity Has Entered The Chat. “Obviously, quality is important too, which is why we have scheduled it for later.”
Colorado’s program offers up to 15 hours of free preschool each week for most 4-year-olds, with some qualifying for 30 hours. For 3-year-olds, the program is more limited, mostly serving children with disabilities, which officials described as universal access in the Colorado sense of the word “universal.”
Gov. Jared Polis’ office said the program has served more than 45,000 children this school year, a number large enough to make a press release feel warm and soft if nobody scrolls down to the sentence about delayed standards for class size, curriculum, and other irritating details that determine whether the program is more than state-subsidized finger painting logistics.
“We believe access and quality must go hand in hand,” said a fictional administration spokesperson. “Unfortunately, access is already in the minivan and quality is still looking for its shoes.”
State officials said Colorado has been “intentionally building” a system that supports quality across classrooms, providers, and communities, using the proven government method of announcing a thing, expanding the thing, congratulating the thing, and then forming a working group to determine whether the thing works.
The national report found state-funded preschool enrollment hit record highs across the country, driven by universal access programs and $14.4 billion in spending. Colorado responded by proudly demonstrating that with enough ambition, money, branding, and gubernatorial LinkedIn energy, a state can get 70% of 4-year-olds into preschool before finishing the hard parts.
Education experts noted that high-quality preschool can help children arrive at kindergarten more prepared, more confident, and more able to function in a classroom. Colorado officials agreed, adding that confidence is also important for adults explaining why the state hit only 20% of the quality checklist.
“We don’t want to get bogged down in benchmarks,” said one consultant close to the program. “The real benchmark is whether parents hear the word ‘free’ before they ask too many follow-up questions.”
By Wednesday afternoon, state leaders were expected to continue celebrating Colorado’s high ranking, because third place in access sounds a hell of a lot better than two out of ten in quality.
The toddlers, for their part, were unavailable for comment because they had already mastered the system and moved on to snacks.
Source: The Denver Post
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