If you have children or want to have children. If you've got grandkids, or other kids you love. If you just care about the future of all California kids, next week could prove pivotal for every single child in this state.

Budget deficit be damned.

At a time when money is tight, and big dreams wither every day in funding hell, a rich possibility is right before us.

On Tuesday, First 5 California, the commission that disburses Proposition 10 cigarette tax money, will decide whether to commit $100 million in matching funds to help put California on the path to universal preschool. If some First 5 county commissions meet a potential 1-to-4 match, that would push the total to $500 million over the next five to seven years.

This is not some little suggestion for tweaking education in this state. A decade from now, the whole system could look different for California families -- and produce very different outcomes.

The idea, which other states have already embraced, is to offer free, part-time preschool to every child who wants it. California currently offers preschool to needy children, but this would eventually swing open the doors to everyone -- not a small thing in a state where 500,000 children are born each year.

"This is really a huge step forward," said Jane Henderson, executive director of First 5 California, which is chaired by actor, director and children's activist Rob Reiner. "A lot of people feel the time has come for this."

Philosophically, anyway, the state has already bought into the concept in its Master Plan for Education. A bill this year by Democratic Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento, a passionate preschool supporter, would begin to create this system, but it was held over in committee until next year.

So how does this ever get started?

Enter First 5 California, whose commissioners will have to decide next week whether to dedicate much of their money for years to come to this single effort. Of the more than $2 billion collected since voters approved Proposition 10 in 1998, 20 percent is administered by the state commission while the remaining 80 percent goes to county commissions -- thus the possible 1-to-4 match.

If commissioners agree, the complex preschool system would begin to take shape in California with "demonstration projects" in a handful of counties.

There's no lack of enthusiasm. Some county First 5 commissions and local officials, notably in Los Angeles and the East Bay, have already dived in, expanding preschool programs and making ambitious plans.

Even so, California is hardly the daring pioneer as other states roar ahead. Georgia, for instance, whose charge was led by a former governor, now has 70 percent of its 4-year-olds enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs funded by the state lottery.

These states have read the research and see the obvious: This investment is worth it. Kids with some preschool do remarkably better throughout their school years -- and throughout life.

A long-term study of 3-and 4-year-olds who attended Chicago preschools in low-income neighborhoods found these kids were more likely to finish high school and far less likely to be arrested. Abuse and neglect were half that of similar kids not in the program.

"We've shown in our district it has a huge payoff," said Dave Gordon, superintendent of the Elk Grove Unified School District, which enrolls about 650 disadvantaged kids in preschool.

One district analysis found that kids in grades one through five who had attended preschool scored higher across the board on standardized reading, language and math tests when compared with all kids in Title 1 schools, which serve low-income families.

Yet even if the First 5 commission moves forward next week, Henderson says, there eventually will have to be state money to make this work.

There's little doubt there will be dissent: It's too expensive. Too much government bureaucracy. Little ones belong at home with mom. Let kids be kids just a little while longer.

But the evidence is too strong to succumb to budget fits or wistful longings for yesteryear. Preschool programs help kids succeed.

And anyway, what's so onerous about allowing a child to touch the world a little sooner? To hear new books and fingerpaint the alphabet and schmooze with buddies?

Big dreams have to start somewhere. For California kids, next week's commission meeting looks as good a place as any.