Keeping the
Promise
Programs like Little Lambs Child Care are seeing an increase in students thanks to Preschool Promise.
ONE YEAR AFTER THE LEVY WAS APPROVED, PRESCHOOL PROMISE IS WORKING RAPIDLY TO EXPAND ACCESS TO QUALITY PRESCHOOLS By Mike Boyer
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bout three-dozen 3- and 4-yearolds gather each day at the Little Lambs Child Care preschool in the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Clifton. Little Lambs has been in operation for 18 years, but Administrator Cheri Phipps says Cincinnati’s Preschool Promise has been a godsend for some preschool parents. “It opens up more children who can get funding [for preschool],” she says. “A lot of parents struggle with co-pays or even finding the money to send a child to preschool.” Preschool Promise is moving rapidly to fulfill its mission just a year after Cincin80
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nati voters approved a five-year Cincinnati Public Schools tax levy to strengthen K-12 education and expand access to quality preschool programs across the city. The levy, which costs the owner of a $100,000 home about $5.35 per week, generates about $48 million annually, $33 million of which is directed to improving K-12 education at Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS). Superintendent Laura Mitchell says those dollars are being used to support the district’s My Tomorrow workforce readiness initiative among other things. “It makes sure our students are graduating prepared to either go to college or some other form of schooling, go into the world of work in a job where they can make a decent living or the military.” The levy is also being used to expand the Vision 2020 program, a five-year effort to bring magnet school-like programming to the district’s neighborhood schools. The remaining $15 million in the levy is earmarked to expand quality preschool
through CPS and community-based providers. CPS manages its prescool program with a portion of levy funds and United Way of Greater Cincinnati is the contract agency to expand communit y-based providers. Little Lambs, a four star-rated preschool under the state’s Step Up to Quality rating system, has added about eight students as result of the tuition assistance from Preschool Promise, which provides aid for preschoolers whose family income is up to 200 percent of the federal poverty guideline. That’s about $49,000 for a family of four. Why is preschool important? Research shows preschool is an important prerequisite for later student success, especially among economically disadvantaged students. “One thing people are still astonished by is that 90 percent of a child’s brain development happens in the first threeto-five years of their life,” says Stephanie Byrd, senior vice president for early learning strategies at United Way and interim