Teams from the Early Childhood Education Organizing Project have been meeting with union members, other AFL-CIO unions, Central Labor Council and members of the child care community.

In San Francisco, early childhood teacher Elaine Merriweather and Project Director Sandra Weese met with the San Francisco Labor Council. The council delegates unanimously voted to support the universal preschool resolution after pipefitters and electricians, among other workers, stood up and told their personal stories of expensive preschools, limited access to them, and how these issues impacted their families. Their local unions later passed a resolution in support of universal preschool as well.

Los Angeles College Faculty Guild member Susheela Narayanan and pre-K teacher Elaine Francisco, from the Jefferson Elementary Federation of Teachers, also working with the project, have found educators hungry for more information on universal preschool. Narayanan brought together college faculty and teachers working in state-funded kindergarten readiness programs, to discuss preschool from both perspectives. In an informal meeting of K–8 teachers hosted at her home, Francisco said that one kindergarten teacher told how she can easily identify students without a preschool background on the first day of school.

Now, we are working with our AFT partners at the Center for the Child Care Workforce and using information from the recently released RAND studies to build support and activism for universal and voluntary preschool in California.

Through data-driven discussions with unions and their members, working families, and allied organizations we are helping build champions for universal preschool who can help lead the effort in their communities to secure universal and voluntary preschool for all three- and four-year olds in the state of California.

To learn more call the Early Childhood Organizing Project, phone (510) 523-5238. For a copy of the resolution, click here.