Preschool for All is reaching its equity objectives but could do more to support preschools and serve diverse children, especially those with disabilities. The program also risks losing credibility if it fails to reach its goal of universal preschool across the county by 2030.

Those are some of the key takeaways from a Multnomah County audit released Wednesday, which includes 16 recommendations to improve and expand the program.

Among the findings, the audit concluded officials face a money problem — but not that they lack funding. They’re not spending it quickly enough in the most critical areas.

Multnomah County’s Preschool for All program connects 3- and 4-year-olds to free, culturally responsive and inclusive preschools. The program, which was approved by voters in 2020, is funded by a personal income tax on the county’s highest earners.

The program’s goal is to prioritize those with the least access to high-quality early education, expanding over time to serve any family that needs it in the county.

Multnomah County has managed to increase the program’s capacity by hundreds of children every year since it launched in 2022. And earlier this week, officials announced they’re expanding the number of slots they can offer.

For the upcoming school year, the county’s goal was to support 3,000 slots in various settings, such as people’s homes, large centers and public schools. Now, the program expects to exceed that goal and have capacity for 3,800 youngsters.

But the demand still heavily outweighs the supply, with hundreds of eligible families not getting slots for their children due to a lack of capacity.

Across the U.S., providers struggle with staffing shortages and limited space, and families often can’t afford to pay for child care and preschool programs at full cost. Multnomah County is somewhat unique in setting a goal and investing millions in taxpayer dollars to confront a child care and preschool crisis. Still, by its own estimates, the county needs to ramp up to 11,000 slots by 2030 to reach universal access.

According to the Multnomah County Auditor’s Office, the issue isn’t a lack of funding, as is often argued in education. Instead, auditors say Preschool for All has saved up too much money and isn’t spending enough to tackle the biggest challenges: sufficient facilities and an adequate, trained workforce.

The program is funded by a 1.5% marginal tax on earnings of more than $150,000 per year for an individual and over $200,000 for households. An additional 1.5% is paid by individuals earning over $250,000 and joint filers who earned more than $400,000. The Board of County Commissioners in 2024 delayed the expected tax rate increase, pushing it back to 2027.

The program spent about half of its money on preschool contracts in the 2024 fiscal year, according to the audit, paying preschools nearly $30 million. This supported 82 participating preschool sites with nearly 1,400 seats for children in the 2023-24 school year.

Those costs included things such as start-up funds and materials, or extra staff, to help support children with disabilities.

The county planned to save money when the program first started, to have added cash on hand later as it expanded. That was successful, according to the audit, so much so that in the first three years of operations, the program brought in more revenue than expected and consistently underspent its budget.

In three years, the audit shows Preschool for All brought in $213 million more in tax collections than it budgeted, and it earned $20 million in interest.

Over the same time frame, the program underspent its budget by a total of $67 million. Combined, this resulted in Preschool for All accumulating $300 million more than forecasted.

That leads to the audit’s next big finding: The program is underspending specifically in workforce development, facilities expansion and coaching.

According to the audit, in fiscal year 2024, Preschool for All only spent about a third of what it had budgeted for coaching and workforce development programs. The program spent a little more than half of what it had budgeted for facilities.

Auditors stressed the need for more existing preschools to participate.

At the start of the 2024-25 school year, 122 preschool sites participated in Preschool for All. According to state licensing data shared in the audit, there are roughly 840 licensed preschool sites that could be participating.

Preschool for All’s current model is built on about 80% of existing preschool seats being converted to Preschool for All by 2030. The audit found that, so far, only around 11% of potential licensed sites are participating.

“Participation of center-based and school-based providers could have a greater influence on the overall number of seats because they have more capacity,” the audit states.

The audit also shows that the Preschool for All program is limiting its own growth by how it responds to interested preschools.

The program has denied about a quarter of provider applicants each year and, in some cases, it is not allowing providers to serve as many children as they ask for.

Vega Pederson responds to audit recommendations

In response to the audit, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson said they accepted the vast majority of the recommendations, such as providing more training on culturally responsive care, communicating more clearly to the public, and sharing more information online, including the number of available seats at individual sites.

“Implementing a new program inevitably comes with deep learning, iterating, and improving,” she wrote, adding that changes focused on better including children with disabilities, for example, have already been started.

Vega Pederson said they’re already taking steps to address the underspending, too.

In the most recent monthly budget period, she said, the county’s Preschool and Early Learning Division budget is 80% spent compared to 50% at the same point in fiscal year 2024.

“Early learning has been historically devalued and underinvested in,” Vega Pederson wrote in her response. “We believe every child deserves the best possible start in life — no matter their background, ZIP code, or family income.”

County officials pushed back on one of the audit’s recommendations.

The audit called for staff to verify the accuracy of families’ application answers used for priority weighting. Auditors argue the process should at least verify income with documentation, since income is the highest weighted factor and is straightforward to document.

Vega Pederson said they don’t have sufficient time to consider and evaluate this recommendation for the current application round, which opened April 2. Moreover, they argue that requiring verification of application data beyond the eligibility criteria contradicts the principles of universal preschool and may create undue barriers and significantly slow down the application process.

Still, she said Preschool for All will review the recommendation further before making a final determination on next steps.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/04/09/preschool-for-all-needs-to-spend-more-of-its-savings-do-more-outreach-and-training-audit-finds/