Multnomah County, Oregon is actively recruiting more preschool providers to expand its tuition-free Preschool for All program, which voters created in 2020 and which has been growing steadily toward a goal of serving every 3- and 4-year-old in the county.
The county's Preschool & Early Learning Division is seeking additional provider sites to deliver program slots as part of the ongoing expansion. The program relies on a mixed network of childcare centers, Head Start programs, school-based sites, family childcare providers, and culturally specific organizations rather than building a new public school system from scratch. That approach has been both the program's strength and one of its persistent challenges.
The scale of the ambition is considerable. At full build-out, Preschool for All is designed to serve an estimated 14,000 to 16,000 children annually, essentially every preschool-age child in the county. The program launched in fall 2022 with roughly 600 slots, prioritizing Black, Indigenous, immigrant, and low-income families who faced the steepest barriers to affordable care. Center-based preschool in the Portland metro was running $12,000 to $15,000 per child per year before COVID-19, which also permanently closed an estimated 20 to 25 percent of local childcare providers.
The program is funded by a personal income tax surcharge that voters approved with 64 percent support in November 2020, making Multnomah County one of the most ambitious local universal-preschool experiments in the country at a time when a federal program collapsed in Congress. The tax applies to individual income above $125,000 and joint income above $200,000, with a higher rate kicking in at $250,000 and $400,000 respectively.
The path from 600 slots to full universality has not been smooth. A 2023 county audit raised concerns about administrative costs and the pace of implementation. Early cohorts were slower to enroll than projected, partly because of workforce shortages and the time required to bring providers up to quality standards. Some culturally specific organizations reported that licensing requirements created barriers to participation, prompting the county to develop alternative pathways. As NationGraph has reported, the program has at times struggled to spend down its growing fund balance fast enough, a consequence of tax revenues coming in higher than projected.
This latest provider recruitment push reflects both continued progress and the work still ahead. The county has noted that incoming providers will also help refine operational details of the program as it learns from experience, suggesting the model is still being actively shaped.
Providers accepted through this round will begin delivering slots as the program moves deeper into its expansion phase. How quickly the county can bring enough qualified sites into the network will go a long way toward determining whether universal preschool in Multnomah County becomes reality within the next several years.
