The sooner Toledo can launch a universal preschool pilot program, the better their chances will be for long-term success.
That’s the message Robyn Lightcap, executive director of Dayton’s Preschool Promise, left with about 70 Toledo community leaders on Thursday.
The group was gathered at United Way of Greater Toledo to hear from Ms. Lightcap and Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley about how the city 150 miles south of Toledo is able to offer preschool to all of its 4-year-olds. Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz wants to do the same in Toledo, and he and Toledo Public Schools Superintendent Romules Durant invited the experts in Dayton to help point them in the right direction.
Mr. Kapszukiewicz said the role of city government is to plow roads, clear leaves, maintain parks, and make sure the community has enough police officers and firefighters. But he wants to do more.
“We have some real challenges when it comes to education in this community,” he told the audience Thursday. “If Toledo is going to become the city we all want it to be, we all know it can be, we’re going to have to do better in certain areas.”
Mr. Kapszukiewicz successfully ran for mayor in 2017 on a platform that included figuring out how to offer universal pre-kindergarten education to Toledoans, no matter what their financial situation. While he won’t yet say how he’ll do it, he promised an early 2019 announcement that will provide more details about both structure and funding.
“There has been a gathering momentum that this is something worth doing,” he said. “This is something we need to do if we’re going to compete and beat cities like Dayton for investment and talent and population. By the way, Dayton’s doing this. We’re not. So guess who’s winning that competition?”
Dayton’s program was made possible by allocating part of a 0.25-percent income tax increase that voters passed in 2016 to tuition assistance for families who want to send their 4-year-old to preschool. They’ve since enrolled more than 1,300 4-year-olds in the program, improved children’s school readiness scores, and increased state-measured quality ratings at 26 preschool sites.
But before they did all that, they conducted a two-year pilot program with the neighboring city of Kettering to work out the kinks.
“One thing I would suggest is that you don’t wait around for the 80-page report. Just pilot it,” Ms. Lightcap told Toledo officials. “Start it now. Figure out how you can kick it off at least in August of the 2019-20 school year. You have enough community will to do that.”
Dayton’s Preschool Promise has an attendance incentive program that Toledo officials also may want to emulate. Officials reward families who have monthly high attendance with prepaid debit cards. That way children are more likely to come to school, and families benefit from extra cash they may need for gas or a bus ticket to transport their children to school, Ms. Lightcap said.
She also suggested Toledo create a nonprofit organization to manage the program, as they’ve done in Dayton. That removes politics from the decision-making and can allow for more flexibility.
Mr. Kapszukiewicz said he has convened a group of about 25 key people to get the ball rolling, including representatives from TPS, ProMedica, United Way, and the Toledo Community Foundation.
“You have all the right people here in this room to make this happen,” Ms. Lightcap said. “I totally believe you’re going to make it happen.”
First Published November 15, 2018, 9:33 p.m.
