ESTABLISHING UNIVERSAL PRE-K for children in Gateway Cities has been a priority of Gov. Maura Healey’s since she announced her “Gateway to Pre-K” initiative in January 2024. At the center of the proposal was a lofty goal: By the end of 2026, every family of a 4-year-old in one of these 26 cities will have the opportunity – at low or no cost – to enroll their child in a preschool program that prepares them for kindergarten.

The legislature has so far allocated about $60 million for the Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative (CPPI), the main state grant program through which universal pre-K expansion is funded. Healey’s fiscal 2027 budget asks for another $32 million for CPPI with a “pledge to achieve universal pre-kindergarten funding in all Gateway Cities this year.”

But there are seven cities that have yet to participate in the CPPI program, and preschool providers in the cities that are participating say that while they’ve made strides, implementing universal pre-K at the local level remains a challenge.

This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporter Hallie Claflin sits down with Department of Early Education and Care commissioner Amy Kershaw and Strategies for Children executive director Amy O’Leary to discuss what more needs to be done to achieve universal pre-K in every Gateway City.

“Those letters – UPK – mean something different to everybody, and that’s part of the challenge,” O’Leary said. “Two things can be true: We can celebrate all the progress we have made, and we are still going to need significant funding to see the vision through.”

The state has taken a mixed-delivery approach to universal pre-K implementation, allowing both public schools and private centers to operate pre-kindergarten classes. It gives parents a choice and ensures that private child care providers are not starved of business.

But funding for CPPI and other state programs only goes so far. Although parents have multiple options for pre-K, some would rather enroll their 4-year-old in the public-school program – even if the care offered by a private center better meets their needs – because it is free. Others who don’t qualify for financial assistance from the state end up paying full preschool tuition at a private center.

Kershaw said CPPI is focused on increasing the quality of preschool offerings, ensuring that all preschool teachers have equal access to professional development opportunities, and encouraging providers to adopt a standardized, coordinated curriculum so that kindergarten readiness levels are the same across the community, regardless of where a child is enrolled

“We really believe early childhood education is an experience, not a setting,” Kershaw said.

She said CPPI serves nearly 3,200 children, but the program isn’t their only strategy. The administration has worked to increase the number of families statewide that are receiving Child Care Financial Assistance and continue the Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) grants, which child care providers can use for everything from professional development to rent. Healey’s state budget request will help the remaining seven Gateway Cities join CPPI this year, Kershaw said.

“You have to think about the broader system that we are creating – higher quality, greater standards, more stability,” Kershaw said.

On the podcast, the guests break down why the mixed-delivery system is so important to providers and families (2:50), dive into how and why cities across the state vary in how far they’ve come in implementing universally accessible pre-K (12:35), and discuss what a broad shift in early childhood education funding might look like (23:29).

This episode is part of CommonWealth Beacon’s ongoing coverage of early childhood education issues and is funded, in part, by the Commonwealth Children’s Fund.