When Ojeya Cruz Banks moved from New Zealand to Ohio a few years ago, she was overwhelmed by the prospect of uprooting her life. But my neighbor and friend, Cruz Banks, a Denison University professor and her single mother, felt relieved to find a home next to a public elementary school. She thought she could walk to pick up her daughter. This was a convenience she needed since she did not yet have a car. Unfortunately, when she went to enroll her daughter in her kindergarten, she encountered something unexpected. Her only option was a half-day program that bused students to a daycare center outside of town in the afternoon. The district offered a limited number of full-day spots, but those spots were all drawn through a lottery early that spring and tuition was included. “I said, ‘Did it cost anything? what? ‘Public schools cost money here?’” she told me.
Many parents across the United States, like Cruz Banks, may think that free, full-day kindergarten is an essential part of the nation's public education system. I was one of them until a few months ago when my youngest won our local lottery. When he was assigned to the half-day program, I vacillated between surprise and frustration. This outrage is understandable, considering that “K-12” is a common shorthand for public schools. However, even though kindergarten has been in public elementary schools for decades, attendance is not required in most states, and many states adopt different laws and funding formulas for those grades.
The majority of American students attend kindergarten, and 79% of those children are enrolled in full-day programs. However, this essential education is not guaranteed nationwide. National preschool policies vary from state to state, district to district, and even within school systems. At least 29 states, both red and blue, do not require school districts to offer full-day kindergarten. And some families may not be able to afford a full-day option, even if it is available. Although fees are not standard, as of 2013, at least a dozen states allow schools to charge tuition, typically thousands of dollars per year, for public kindergartens. However, it is unclear how common this practice is within the state. Although low-income students qualify for financial aid, many middle-class families still struggle to pay the costs, effectively turning kindergarten enrollment into a class privilege.
Overall, a significant minority of children have no access to education, including one in five children enrolled in half-day kindergarten, full-time students who have to pay tuition, and a small number who do not attend at all. They are free to receive the education they deserve. In such cases, parents must rush to pay tuition or find child care amid a nationwide shortage of time that half-day schools cannot cover. As too often happens to families with young children in America, they are left alone without social support when their children are at their most vulnerable.
The integration of kindergartens and American public schools occurred gradually. It arose as a privately funded educational venture in the 19th century. By the beginning of World War I, these grades had become part of every major urban public school district, and by 1965, more than 2 million children were enrolled across 40 states. Most early kindergarten programs offered only half days, but full-day programs have become more common over the past few decades. These grades received more attention in the early 2000s as states scrutinized learning standards and curricula, the introduction of the No Child Left Behind Act and the standards-based reform movement. During this time, experts have called for kindergarten classrooms to incorporate a stronger educational emphasis on top of the play and socialization they already provide, according to Rolf Grafwallner, director of early childhood education programs at the Council of State School Chiefs, an education nonprofit. Academics for those grades were revised once again during the Common Core State Standards Initiative. But despite curriculum improvements and high enrollment rates, perhaps the kindergarten's most fundamental problems—tuition and inadequate half-day programs—remained unresolved.
Today, these grades still exist in a gray area between kindergarten and elementary school. Although it is not guaranteed, required, or fully funded in many states, it is important enough that a child's development will suffer without this rating. For many students, grade school is their introduction to formal schooling. Curriculum varies, but typically covers components of core subjects such as reading and math in addition to basic social, emotional, and motor skills. The importance of this education cannot be overemphasized. Children ages 5 and 6 are at a critical stage in their brain development. Educators, advocates, researchers and state officials generally agree that full-day programs benefit children academically and socially. Studies have shown that children enrolled in full-day classes make greater gains in literacy skills than children enrolled in half-day classes. These gains are maintained for years.
Parents whose children are out of class all day can fill in the learning gaps themselves. Anna Baker, a mom from Marshfield, Massachusetts, tried to solve this problem by arranging playdates for her daughter and enrolling her in piano lessons and academic enrichment classes taught by a retired teacher. “It was piecemeal and expensive, and she was frustrated because her peers were getting the extra experiences that most kids should have: more art, more gym, all the social activities for that age,” she said. said. Still, Baker felt lucky. Some of her daughter's friends couldn't pay for the full-day option, even if they did come in, and she couldn't afford to add extracurricular activities to the free half-day program like Baker did.
For Rachel Abel, school board president in Beverly, Massachusetts, where full-day kindergarten cost $4,000 a year until 2018, the access issue was a failure of conscience on the part of her district. “The budget is our moral document. This is what we believe,” she said. “Are we saying to our community, ‘If you can afford a public education, you can get a public education; if you can’t, you can only get a half-day.’” She hated it when her parents came to ask about scholarships or took her children away because they could no longer afford to pay. So she and her committee gradually reduced tuition fees, eliminating them entirely in 2020.
When governments do not ensure adequate early childhood education, the entire burden is “internalized by families.” Anna Thomas, senior policy analyst at the child advocacy group Voices for Utah Children, told me. “Every stress, every challenge, every punishment for not doing everything right has to be borne by the family, especially the mother.” This burden is unsustainable for many people. Half of American families have working parents, and 71% of mothers with children under 18 are in the labor market. For this reason, the policy of expanding full-day classes seems to be popular among parents. For example, in Utah, where only about a third of children have access to full-day programs, 68% of voters support expanding full-day kindergarten and up to 69% said they would accept tax increases to facilitate it. Take the Voices for Utah Children survey.
The importance of ensuring universal free, full-day kindergarten has never been clearer. The pandemic has exposed the dire consequences of isolating families from their caring communities. Parents' mental health has plummeted, children have fallen worryingly behind and mothers have left the workforce in huge numbers. Kindergarten enrollment has fallen to levels not seen since the 2000s, with public kindergartens losing 340,000 students from 2019 to 2020. These numbers likely contributed to the decline in birth rates, but cannot be the sole explanation. And America has no ground to lose. According to a 2020 UNICEF report, the United States ranks last among developed countries in child well-being, including socialization and math and reading achievement.
Economically, with food costs rising, inflation soaring to record highs, and gasoline prices soaring, American families need help. Including me. I recently found out that my son was able to attend a full-day program at our school because someone else had declined the spot. That knowledge brought relief, but it also brought stress. I couldn't resist the learning, play, and socializing that the all-day option offered, but I knew that paying nearly $4,000 a year (not including aftercare costs) would mean less money to invest in living expenses, and rising medical costs. Whether it’s debt or an emergency fund. While not a panacea for the child care crisis or the recent loss of education, establishing a free, full-day program across the country can provide much-needed support to families across the country. It's long overdue.