By Ann Schimke | Chalkbeat Colorado via The Colorado Sun
Colorado’s $344 million universal preschool program is popular among families, but some providers say they’re still wrestling with problems that make it hard for families to secure seats or for preschools to sustain themselves financially.
Some preschool directors want greater access to the state’s preschool sign-up system. Others want to be paid by the state before kids step into their classrooms — not a month later. Some providers also want more leeway on preschool class sizes, which the state will cap at 20 by 2026 for most preschools.
These are a few of the sticking points that remain a year and a half after the rocky launch of universal preschool. State lawmakers proposed a bill meant to address these and other issues, but it was killed Wednesday at the request of one of its sponsors. The bill would have cost more than a million dollars next year and the state is facing a $1 billion budget shortfall.
Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Weld County Republican who sponsored the bill, said she believed the bill would improve customer services in the universal preschool program, but didn’t want to commit the money, called a fiscal note, that the bill would have required.