Multnomah County, Oregon is recruiting preschool providers for the next phase of its free universal pre-K program, six years after voters passed one of the most ambitious locally-funded early childhood education initiatives in the United States.
The county's Preschool & Early Learning Division is seeking provider sites for the 2026-2027 school year as the Preschool for All program works toward its ultimate goal: free preschool for every 3- and 4-year-old in the county, roughly 14,000 to 15,000 children at full capacity. The county is looking to fill slots through community-based childcare centers, family childcare homes, school districts, and culturally specific organizations serving Black, Latino, immigrant, and refugee families.
The program was created by Measure 26-214, which Portland-area voters approved in November 2020 with about 64% support. It is funded by a 1.5% income tax on high earners and a 1.5% business profits tax on large companies, a dedicated revenue stream projected to generate roughly $200 million annually at full maturity. That makes it distinctive nationally: most universal pre-K efforts rely on redirected general funds or federal grants, while Multnomah County built its own dedicated funding source from scratch.
The rollout, however, has moved slower than many advocates hoped. Early cohorts enrolled fewer children than projected, hampered by a shortage of qualified preschool teachers, a problem acute in the Portland metro area, where childcare workers often earn $15 to $20 an hour against one of the country's steeper costs of living. Childcare in the region runs $15,000 to $18,000 or more per child per year, underlining exactly why the program exists but also why staffing it is hard. A county performance review raised questions about administrative costs relative to the number of children actually served.
The county has invested in workforce wage enhancements and provider capacity in response, and the program has grown each year since its 2022 launch. Providers selected for 2026-2027 will also help the county continue refining how the program operates, a signal that Preschool for All remains an evolving initiative even as it enters its fifth year.
As Public Sector Wire has previously reported, the county has consistently faced a gap between available funding and the provider capacity needed to spend it on children. Whether the latest recruitment round closes that gap will be an early test of whether the program is finally reaching scale.
