One of the Election Day nail-biters in Denver was 1A, the preschool initiative. Previous early education proposals had met with defeat, but when the air finally cleared this week, Denver voters had given their OK by the narrowest of margins.
The program involves a small increase in the city sales tax that could give early education opprtunities to as many as 2,000 extra 4-year-olds.
Eventually, the initiative will be a boon for a city struggling with high drop-out rates and poor academic achievement. We hope eligible residents will sign their children up. Without preschool, far too many children start kindergarten unprepared to learn, making it that much more difficult to catch up to their schoolmates.
The negligible margin of victory underscores the many questions and concerns voters had about the program during the campaign. Money for the Denver Preschool Program program – estimated at $12 million a year from a .12 percent sales-tax boost – will provide parents a “tuition credit” to send their 4-year-olds to the state-licensed preschool of their choice. To qualify, the facilities must meet yet-to-be-developed quality assurance standards.
The yet-to-be-developed part, and the fact that members of the board overseeing the program couldn’t be named before the election, no doubt scared off some voters.
In addition, some found the church-and- state issues worrisome. Under the program, religious schools will be eligible to receive tuition funds, a ticklish matter because Colorado’s constitution prohibits spending public money on religious education. We’re not against funding programs located in religious facilities, but it must be clear that public funding cannot be used for religious instruction.
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, the measure’s chief backer, will select a founding board to guide the program, and he needs to take the narrow victory margin to heart. We urge him to nominate board members who will adopt guidelines developed for the federal Head Start program that establish proper religious limitations.
We encourage the City Council to take an active role in oversight of the program, and city auditor Dennis Gallagher should not only keep an eye on the program as it gets organized but conduct regular performance audits of its ongoing operations.
Denver schoolchildren, and ultimately the community and its economy, will benefit from this forward-looking program. But it’s important now to the lay a proper foundation for operations and oversight.
