INTRODUCTION

Introduction

According to Nobel Memorial Prize winner in economics, James Heckman, early childhood development drives success in school and in life and directly influences economic, health and social outcomes for individuals and society1 . Based in large part on Heckman’s findings, President Obama’s “Preschool for All” initiative calls for dramatic increases in the number of 4year-olds enrolled in public pre-kindergarten programs and in the quality of these programs nationwide.

The State of Texas rolled out public pre-kindergarten (pre-k) in 1985. Each school district is required to offer pre-k classes to eligible children who qualify as “at-risk”. Once at-risk students are served, school districts may open enrollment to all 4-year-old children who turn 4 by September 1 regardless of economic status. Open enrollment for all 4 year-old children is the foundation of universal pre-kindergarten, or UPK.

Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD) is currently expanding their public pre-k program to a universal model that will accommodate all 4-year-old children in the district. With this expansion of free public pre-k there is a community concern that publicly funded pre-k programs housed in public schools will adversely affect the financial sustainability of private child care providers. Research on the effects of UPK has found that the introduction of public programs into the market of child care providers to 4-year-olds generally reduces 4-year-old enrollment among private providers and impacts their financial stability. This impact is driven primarily by the higher profitability and lower costs of providing care for 4-year-olds versus younger children. For many private child care providers, the profits of care for 4-year-olds are necessary to balance the costs of infant and toddler care. As these 4-year-olds enroll instead in FWISD’s public pre-k, some private child care providers could suffer a financial loss. Ultimately, if losses are significant enough, private child care providers may be driven out of business, thus reducing access to quality child care providers for infants and toddlers. As is common in this type of research, the private child care market is defined as any non-profit or for-profit provider that receives payments directly from a parent or other responsible party for each child served. Thus federally funded child care providers such as Head Start programs are not included here.

This research paper will study the impact of Fort Worth Independent School District’s universal pre-kindergarten program on private child care providers within the school district’s geographic boundaries with a particular focus on 32 Camp Fire First Texas School Readiness programs. The results of this research will aid in sustainability planning for the Camp Fire School Readiness program and will ultimately lead to ensuring that young children in Fort Worth have quality early learning experiences and are ready for school.

1 (Heckman, 2012) 2 (NAEYC, 2009) 3 (NAEYC, 2009)