MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – Should Vermont’s public education system offer universal pre-kindergarten to four-year-olds?
The sweeping child care bill in 2022 created a group to investigate bringing some 9,000 four-year-olds into the public school system — the state currently offers 10 hours of pre-k a week to families with three and four-year-olds.
In a new report, the group found that children should have access to pre-k education, especially those with special needs. But officials say there is still a major question about how the potential change would impact the state’s private child care providers, who are already getting taxpayer subsidies under the new law.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty around how these changes will play out and we need to be cautious there aren’t unintended consequences that we didn’t spend the time to examine in advance,” said the Department for Children and Families’ Janet Mclaughlin, the co-chair of the study committee.
There’s no word yet on what the proposal would cost, adding to the state’s already overburdened education budget.