Why does California disappoint in preschool access and quality?

California continues to lag behind other states in preschool access and quality and the pandemic didn’t help matters, according to a national report that ranks all state-funded preschool programs.

Covid-19 plays a pivotal role in the “State of Preschool Yearbook,” an annual report card on state-subsidized early learning released Monday, published by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), based at Rutgers University. This annual survey focused on the 2019-2020 school year, which was upended by the public health crisis. While researchers say much of the data in this report reflect the preschool landscape before lockdowns began, there is also a special section on the impact the epidemic has had on state-funded preschool enrollment, funding, and quality across the country.