Earlier this week, the White House released details on President Obama’s proposal to expand access to early education, which he called on Congress to support in his State of the Union address. The President is proposing a state-federal partnership program to expand access to high-quality preschool to all “provide all low- and moderate-income four-year-old children with high-quality preschool.” The plan calls for financing this program through a cost-sharing model with states. The U.S. Department of Education would allocate funds to states based on their share of four-year olds from low- and moderate-income families (at or below 200 percent of the poverty line). The proposal would also incentivize states to broaden participation in public preschool programs for additional middle-class families. States would be required to meet quality benchmarks such as state-level standards for early learning, qualified teachers for all preschool classrooms and comprehensive data and assessment systems in order to access federal funding. The proposal will also encourage states to expand full-day kindergarten availability once they have fully expanded their preschool programs. In addition, the President also called for significant investments in a new Early Head-Start Child Care program, funded by competitive grants directly to communities, as well as expansion of the Administration’s evidence-based home visiting initiative.

Link: Fact Sheet