Des Moines, Iowa — State funding would support full-day preschool for children from low-income households under legislation eligible for debate in the Iowa Senate.
The state’s voluntary preschool program for four-year-olds provides state funding for 10 hours of preschool per week. The bill would provide state funding to support 20 hours of preschool each week for children whose parents have a yearly income at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level.
Senator Lynn Evans, a Republican from Aurelia who represents all of O’Brien, Osceola, and Buena Vista counties and parts of Cherokee and Clay counties, says many school districts offer full-day preschool, but have to find other ways to finance it. Some are charging tuition, but Evans says that means children from low-income families are left out.
Evans says the proposal has the potential to close the achievement gap for some students.
Representative Henry Stone, a Republican from Forest City, introduced a similar bill in the Iowa House that offered schools state funding to support all-day preschool for four-year-olds from low-income households.
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Senator Herman Quirmbach, a Democrat from Ames, supports the bill, but he’d like to go further and have full-day, state-funded preschool for all Iowa four-year-olds.
Senator Sarah Trone-Garriott, a Democrat from Waukee, would also like to see full-day state-funded preschool for all four-year-olds, but she voted for the bill to support preschool for children from low-income households.
The bill cleared the Senate Education Committee this week but did not come up for a vote in the House Education Committee.
