Historic Win for Children 0-5 in Los Angeles
Los Angeles Unified School District Allocates $40 Million for Early Care and Education Facilities
Contact: Kim Pattillo Brownson
Telephone: 213-989-1300 ext. 128
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education, acting to improve school readiness for children entering kindergarten, approved the allocation of $40 million to support early care and education (ECE) facilities. This historic allocation is one of the largest single allocations to ECE facilities ever granted in the United States, and marks the culmination of a two-year effort undertaken by Los Angeles based advocates from the Advancement Project, Preschool California, Public Counsel, the California Community Foundation, Los Angeles Universal Preschool, and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. This unprecedented funding will provide our youngest children with funding for additional early learning facilities at existing elementary LAUSD campuses and will also support the enhancement of existing ECE centers and classrooms. LAUSD currently serves almost 40,000 young children from birth to five in its ECE programs.
This desperate need for early education facilities expansion within LAUSD united the diverse coalition of policy advocates to identify and build support for funding for ECE facilities. Despite initial predictions that new facilities funding might not become available until 2012-2014, the coalition continued to be diligent in tracking LAUSD school facility funding mechanisms and school board meetings to seek new pathways of support for funding the needs of our youngest children. When a new source of facilities funding was announced through the Capital Improvement Program Reserve (CIPR), along with the new availability of state matching funds, the advocates, along with their colleagues in the LAUSD ECE Division and Facilities Division, worked closely to form a plan to recommend to the school board.
The coalition of advocates spent almost two years meeting with board offices, the LAUSD Facilities Division, and LAUSD staff members to educate decision-makers about the importance of early care and education and its vital link to success in the K-12 system and later life. Advancement Project undertook data analysis that uncovered that tens of thousands of young children lacked the opportunity to participate in ECE programs before their entry into school using innovative GIS mapping tools to identify the neighborhoods in which the largest number of at-risk children lacked opportunities for early learning. This work enabled decision-makers to concretely visualize and understand the opportunity gaps posed by the lack of ECE facilities within the District. Advancement Project and Preschool California jointly authored a policy brief that they shared with decision-makers and took the lead in outreach to LAUSD officials and building the case for increased investment in ECE.
The LAUSD Board of Education’s vote demonstrated a strong commitment to early learning and to the district’s youngest learners. “When at-risk kids don’t have opportunities for early learning, they tend to start school behind and are placed in the unfair position of having to play ‘catch-up.’ This funding represents a great victory for young children because the District is saying that it will invest in ECE facilities to ensure that the highest-need kids get an equal opportunity to learn and succeed,” stated Kim Pattillo Brownson, Associate Director for Education at the Advancement Project. This historic allocation will greatly expand and enhance early learning opportunities for LAUSD students. “The Los Angeles Unified School District’s decision to invest $40 million to enhance and build early learning facilities is a victory for the 38,000 children that the district serves between the ages of birth to 5. By increasing access to high-quality early learning programs, LAUSD has a golden opportunity to ensure children are ready to learn and succeed in school, compete in the global economy and contribute to thriving communities,” said Araceli Sandoval-Gonzalez, Preschool California’s deputy field director.