Universal Pre-School was passed in 2020. The current system only covers low-income families with free pre-school and often it is only subsidized, with parents still paying out of pocket costs. The tax to fund universal pre-school brought in $187 million in 2021.1 The current pre-school age population in Multnomah County is approximately between 15,000 and 20,000 children.2 If teacher-student ratios were around 1 to 10 and spending per student was around $10,000 this amount of revenue could potentially cover all pre-school aged students. In the current universal pre-school system some pre-schools often have teacher-student ratios of 1 to 1.5, while receiving $20,000 per qualified student from the county and still having out of pocket costs.3 This is compared to the K-12 public school system which has a teacher-student ratio of 1 to 20,4 while receiving $12,000 per student from the state.5
In order to more efficiently implement universal pre-school and potentially cover all pre-schoolers with universal pre-school these following rules will be established.
Pre-Schools will be separated between public and private. To receive public funding a pre-school will have to be public, free-for-all. This is important as it simplifies the process of funding and makes it easier to regulate a pre-school, ensuring it follows rules 2 and 3. A website will be created so the county can monitor the pre-schools, each pre-school will have an account they upload student and parent information into.
Teacher to student ratios may be no less then 1-10.
Spending per student shouldn't exceed $10,000 per student. This can be adjusted for inflation by indexing it to the GDP per capita, average personal income, or GDP per hour. Other expenses of operating a pre-school such as cost of water, electricity, property tax, supplies etc. should be investigated before making final decisions on spending per student.
If teacher to student ratios are higher a pre-school can make more money. Potentially we can make it mutually beneficial by having spending per student decrease if teacher to student ratios are higher, but not at the same rate the ratios have increased so the pre-school still makes more money overall. For example if a pre-school has a 1 to 15 teacher to student ratio they can receive $8,500 per student so over all cost is $127,500, versus having a 1 to 10 teacher to student ratio and receiving $10,000 per student with an overall cost of $100,000.
References
1 Retrieved from https://www.wweek.com/news/2023/02/09/preschool-for-all-tax-coffer-overflows-as-wealthy-payers-reap-capital-gains/
2 Age Demographics. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/multnomahcountyoregon/PST045223
3 Willamette Week. Multnomah County’s Big Plans to Fund Universal Preschool Have So Far Produced Pint-Sized Results. Retrieved from https://www.wweek.com/news/2023/11/08/multnomah-countys-big-plans-to-fund-universal-preschool-have-so-far-produced-pint-sized-results/?fbclid=IwAR1wI6555YixW-WWLpTLmkZGFTZMYKvCGx21ee4XAPDWOSCONE7BYTJm2pY
4 Retrieved from https://usafacts.org/data/topics/people-society/education/k-12-education/student-to-teacher-ratio-public/
5 Retrieved from https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/per-pupil-spending-by-state