TITLE
Recommendation to direct City Manager to examine case studies from similarly sized municipalities that presently guarantee free preschool for their residents and report back to the City Council in 120 days with his findings about ways to fund such a venture in Long Beach, along with concrete policy goals and eligibility requirements that would allow for universal access without a major impact on the city budget; coordinate with Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) to ensure that any proposed program would not interfere with existing teaching contracts or place an undue burden on their resources; and reach out to existing community groups that provide this service for children to hear their ideas and input.
DISCUSSION
The last thirty years have seen a dramatic change in how working families with young children manage their finances and daily schedules. The end result of these changes is a dramatic upsurge in the need for reliable, safe, and academically stimulating forms of childcare. Unfortunately this need resulted in an increasingly expensive and unregulated patchwork of industries and independent contractors. Today daycare expenses create unprecedented levels of stress on parents/caretakers, and many of the existing day care facilities for poor and working class families are failing to properly prepare young children for success in kindergarten.
Luckily for the working parents in Long Beach (and the rest of the country) children are guaranteed a free and quality education when they enter kindergarten. But an increasing body of science now confirms that a child's intellectual development demands formal education begin earlier than the age of 5. Studies, including the landmark work of James Heckman from the University of Chicago, consistently show children that enter a structured pre-k perform better throughout their time in school (specifically in areas of literacy, math, and language skills), live healthier lives, and are less likely to exhibit...
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