The lack of affordable childcare in Oregon and the nation has been described as a crisis. In 2020, Multnomah County voters passed a tax on high income earners to fund the Preschool for All measure. The idea is to give access to quality early childhood education for every family in the county regardless of their ability to pay.
The program is rolling out in phases and is now providing free preschool to some families for the second year. It has subsidized some existing preschool programs, but hasn’t yet created the 12,000 new publicly funded preschool seats, which it’s supposed to do in by 2030.But capacity is expanding - if slowly - and there are now hundreds of families that have preschool for their children that would have been difficult or impossible for them to get otherwise before the program was implemented. We talk with the Director of Preschool & Early Learning Division Leslee Barnes and economist Mary King, along with Preschool for All providers and parents in front of a live audience at the Rockwood Market Hall in Gresham.The program is part of the series funded by the Oregon Community Foundation that examines some of Oregon’s biggest problems and possible solutions.