Democratic Assemblymember Kevin McCarty of Sacramento introduced three pieces of legislation on Tuesday aiming to provide free preschool to about 100,000 more children from low and middle-income households in California.
Stanford Professor Deborah Stipek has investigated the state of early childhood education in California and said the bill is a very good start for achieving quality pre-K. But she said that unlike other states, California doesn't collect enough information on schools to really say if current funds are being spent wisely.
“Until we have better data it's hard to be confident that we're getting what we're paying for,” Stipek said.
Stipek said that bill , AB125, will ultimately benefit teachers.
“People don't stay in the profession for very long on average,” Stipek said, “which means that children for the most part have relatively inexperienced teachers.” She says the bill will create a more stable and more experienced teacher pool.