PRESCHOOL ACCESSIBILITY IN THE UNITED STATES

Abstract

After the pandemic and seeing the holes it exposed in the United States child care system, it was clear there needed to be more research in this area. This paper addresses the current challenges in the child care system in the United States with a focus on the preschool system. In addition to outlining the challenges of the system, this paper discusses the benefits of a high quality child care system for children and for society overall. This paper also outlines two alternative policies to the current preschool system in the United States; increased subsidies and Universal Pre-K. The section about subsidies explains a study from the Urban Institute while the section on Universal Pre-K examines five current Universal Pre-K systems across the country. The paper concludes with the policy recommendation of increasing subsidies and slowly expanding them to all families who need them, in order to increase access to high quality preschool for all children in the country.