Colorado's universal preschool program relies on a complex web of 32 providers made up of local groups across the state.
. It allows for all children in Colorado to register for up to 15 hours of free, high-quality preschool in their year before kindergarten.
However, some of those groups are worried after learning of proposed cuts they say could hurt the program.
They sent a letter to Governor Jared Polis' office last week expressing their concerns over a proposed cut of $1.7 million for next year and an additional cut of $700,000 the following year. They said those cuts would deplete up to 68% of funding for some of the largest child populations in the state.
Chalkbeat Colorado reporter Ann Schmike joined KUNC's Michael Lyle, Jr.
"The concern is essentially that customer service will take a nose dive and that they won't be able to provide the help and answers that parents are looking for," said Schmike. "They worry there could be longer wait times for parents and ultimately, they worry it could affect access, and maybe families would just give up and not be able to get their 4-year-olds into universal preschool or that preschools themselves would get frustrated and drop out of the program."
Schmike said another issue that's contributing to the problem is there may not be enough state funding to support the program.
"(State leaders) envisioned a high quality preschool program that would give extra help and extra hours to the kids who need it most," said Schmike. "And frankly, the program has been so popular, more popular than state leaders initially expected, that the money's being spread out a little more thinly than it would have been otherwise."
Schmike added the state is working with with those local groups to make up for the lost funding in the days since they sent a letter to Polis' office.
"For the coming school year, the state through a kind of budgeting mechanism that allows them to move money around within their budget, they've promised some of these local groups by saying, hey, if you don't have enough funding to provide the services that we want you to provide, we will make up for it in September," said Schmike.
Should the cuts take place, Schmike said the groups would likely be able to recover some of the lost funding,although not guaranteed, through discussions at the Colorado Department of Early Childhood for the interim.
