A Whopping Ninety Percent Of Seattle Parents Believe the Government Should Help Pay for Preschool

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PRESCHOOLERS How could anyone be against this?

According to a just-released multilingual phone survey of more than 1,200 local parents by EMC Research, 96 percent of them believe they should be able to access high-quality preschool regardless of their income. Ninety percent believe the government should help subsidize such access.

Seattle City Council President Tim Burgess says the findings “directly align with the outcomes” that his $58 million Seattle Preschool pilot program for low-income families aims to deliver. And why not? As Anna reported when Mayor Ed Murray and Burgess announced the program earlier this month:

While a growing body of evidence shows profound impacts of preschool on children and adults—higher graduation rates, lower criminal behavior, higher earning potential, the list goes on—much of that is only fully realized through “high-quality” preschool programs.

Great preschools result in better outcomes for kids? You don’t say.

But Seattle’s preschool program is slated to launch next year with under 300 students enrolled. Burgess believes that quality is more important than quantity, and hopes to scale up over time. The staggering results of the city council-commissioned poll suggest that can’t happen soon enough, particularly for minority communities where the survey found lower existing rates of preschool enrollment and simultaneously higher demand, than among whites.

You can read the whole thing, including its methodology and the survey questionnaire itself, here (PDF).