California to expand transitional kindergarten
California wants to lure all 4-year-olds to public schools within the next four years. But will there be enough teachers there to meet them?
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California wants to lure all 4-year-olds to public schools within the next four years. But will there be enough teachers there to meet them?
California needs tens of thousands of teachers and assistants to expand public school to all 4-year-olds. Private and nonprofit preschools worry they’ll lose their staff.
“I don’t want to have this on my shoulders anymore – I go to work and I’m with children and I have to go home and I worry about giving it to my parents,” said program director Alexandra Dutton. Dutton runs the Old Firehouse School in Lafayette and some of the toddlers, 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds her staff cares for are the children of essential workers. “They’re doctors, they’re nurses, we have firefighters,” said Dutton. Even though the pre-school has followed the state’s COVID-19 guidelines, Dutton says a child, showing no signs of being sick, tested positive for CO...