California can make low-cost improvements to its early-education system now and lay the foundation for future improvements when the state’s fiscal condition improves, according a report released by the nonprofit RAND Corp., a research organization that has studied preschool in California since 2007.
At the request of state lawmakers, the organization has released a series of reports on the state’s early-childhood programs. The final report, released May 28, integrates information from the previous studies and includes policy recommendations.
A long-term recommendation was to better train the state’s preschool workforce. Shorter-term suggestions included: streamlining the preschool enrollment process, developing a quality-rating system, conducting more routine licensing inspections, and producing Web-based quality reports that would be easily accessible to parents.
