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