California's fledgling drive to give all children access to high quality preschool has bumped up against an unavoidable fact: The state doesn't have any money to spend on big new initiatives, and likely won't in the immediate future. But where public coffers have run dry, private efforts can fill in around the edges, and they are doing so, nicely.
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation planted some promising seeds last week when it doled out $1.4 million to four children's advocacy groups that have been working toward a goal of universally available preschool for all 3-and 4-year-olds.
This money doesn't go directly to preschool programs -- it doesn't set off many bells and whistles and it therefore won't get much ink. Still, it is important because it will help lay the foundation, and build momentum, for a campaign to educate the public and policy-makers about how much California lags behind other states and developed countries in the quality and availability of early childhood education. It will raise awareness of what solid research has already shown: Quality preschool helps children -- particularly poor children -- succeed in school and beyond, and more than pays for itself by reducing the costs of special education, dropouts and crime.

Packard's focus on preschool is timely and significant. It has budgeted $7 million in spending for this year alone, and will dedicate additional millions in future years as it drives toward a goal of preschool for all by 2013. And Packard is not alone in trying to move the agenda. In 2002, the Pew Charitable Trusts launched a major national campaign for universal preschool that has devoted more than $15 million to research, cost analyses and public awareness campaigns on the need for stronger early childhood education.

But private efforts, however generous, will never be able to fill California's gaping preschool void completely. Public money, likely on the order of a few billion dollars, will be crucial. While it may be several years before California can make a public investment that big, smaller strides are being made across the state. Some school districts and counties -- Los Angeles, most notably -- are already moving to make universal preschool a reality.

First 5 California, the statewide commission that oversees spending of a portion of the Proposition 10 cigarette tax money, has $100 million to spend on early childhood programs. It will likely move next month to spend much of it in matching grants to counties that are trying to expand quality preschool for 3-and 4-year-olds. It's hard to imagine how those funds could be better spent.

In dark budgetary times, when California is struggling to maintain existing programs, much less start new ones, these efforts will help keep the drive for universal preschool alive. That lends hope that one day soon, in better and smarter times, most California children will have the chance to start kindergarten ready to learn, with a decent chance to succeed later on, in both school and life.