The free, universal pre-K program in Cambridge, Mass., has made the news.
The Boston Globe highlights Cambridge’s new program by telling the story of Laura McMaster who moved with her husband and 4-year-old daughter, Amelia, from Atlanta to Cambridge.
“Researching their new community online, they were met with an extraordinary surprise: For the first time ever this year, pre-kindergarten is free,” the Globe explains.
Cambridge pays “the full freight for every four-year-old in the city, regardless of income, including in private, specialized schools with boutique teaching styles, among them Capucine Montessori School, a bilingual French-English option just down the street. It was perfect, as [McMaster’s husband] is French, and they had been eager to find a place where Amelia could practice the language.”
The city also accepts applications for 3-year-olds. And because Cambridge has a mixed-delivery system, parents can also send their children to high-quality preschool programs in the city’s public schools as well as in community-based settings, including child care centers and family child care providers. The program covers the school day and the school year.
The Globe points out that free pre-K will be “a financial boon for [McMaster’s] family. As it will for several hundred others — rich, poor, and in between — who will get for free education that can otherwise cost more than $30,000 per child this year, as the city’s universal pre-kindergarten program gets off the ground. Officials and residents here say it will move the city closer to being a place where a child doesn’t need wealthy parents to have a high-end pre-kindergarten experience.”
According to city data, 777 children received preschool placements for the 2024-2025 school year; all eligible 4-year-olds were matched with a program; and 40 percent of students in the program live in low-income households.
“Officials believe more children in the city will now attend preschool, which will pay dividends as the children get older,” the Globe says.
“ ‘Having them start so early definitely provides opportunities to find their strengths, find their interests,’ said Karen Feeney, executive director of early childhood for Cambridge Public Schools. ‘It gives us a stronger foundation not only for the students as learners, but to know who they are as learners.’ ”
To read more, check out the Globe article.