ED389471 PS023915
Title: Financing Preschool for All Children. ERIC Digest.
Author(s): Svestka, Sherlie S.
Author Affiliation: ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood
Education, Urbana, IL.(BBB16656)
Pages: 3
Publication Date: December 1995
Sponsoring Agency: Office of Educational Research and Improvement
(ED), Washington, DC. (EDD00036)
Contract No: RR93002007
Report No: EDO-PS-95-16
Available from: EDRS Price MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.
Language: English
Document Type: ERIC product (071); ERIC digests in full text (073)
Geographic Source: U.S.; Illinois
Journal Announcement: RIEAPR1996
This digest
compares the efforts of the United States and of other member countries
of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
to finance center- and facility-based preschool. In many OECD countries,
public preschool is more widely available than in the United States.
For example, in France, 100%, and in Italy, approximately 92%, of
children age 3 through 5 attend preschool. In the United Kingdom
and the Netherlands, all 5- and almost all 4-year-olds, and in Belgium,
95% of 3- to 5-year-olds, attend a public preschool program. Many
public preschool programs in OECD countries and some programs in
the United States are financed through multiple sources. There are
two major differences in the ways this funding is provided. First,
most U.S. publicly funded programs are targeted for poor and disabled
children, while in other countries all children are included in
public preschool. Second, in OECD countries, different funding sources
finance different parts of a comprehensive program or target different
ages entirely, whereas in U.S. publicly financed programs, most
of which target individuals in the same population of poor children,
there is greater fragmentation of services and conflicting eligibility
requirements. In the United States, the private sector has traditionally
been the major supplier of early childhood education and care. Recent
research, however, has found that sites operated by public agencies,
receiving public funding, or sponsored by employers
provided higher quality programs than sites that were financed only
by parent fees. (BC)
Descriptors: *Access to Education; Comparative Analysis;
Cross Cultural Studies; Enrollment; *Federal Aid; *Financial Support;
Foreign Countries; *Preschool Education; Private Sector; *Public
Education
Identifiers: ERIC Digests; France; Italy; *Organisation for
Economic Cooperation Development; United States
