L.A. preschools struggle to compete

As transitional kindergarten expands and thrives, the state sees unintended fallout

- By Jenny Gold

MYUNG J. CHUN Los Angeles Times

ANGELINA PRESCHOOL in Los Angeles has seen its enrollment decline as parents move toward transitional kindergarten.

During the first four years of California’s new transitional kindergarten program, 167 community-based preschools in Los Angeles County shut down, unable to financially survive amid enrollment drops or pivot to more costly infant and toddler care, according to new UC Berkeley research.

The closures represent some painful and unintended consequences of the state’s ambitious roll-out of transitional kindergarten, or TK—a signature education program of Gov. Gavin Newsom that provides universal public preschool to every 4-year-old, researchers found. The loss of community preschools has meant that some families of children younger than 4 have had to scramble to find other day care in an already delicate network.

At least in some cases, rather than bolstering California's childcare sector and serving more children, TK instead appears to be competing with — and even replacing — local preschools, as they struggle to take in younger children, according to the study. Areas that experienced the largest growth in TK enrollment were also the most likely to suffer preschool closures.

"TK seemed like a sparkling idea with very few negatives," said Bruce Fuller, a UC Berkeley professor emeritus of education and public policy who cowrote the study. "But the downsides were not weighed carefully enough in retrospect."

In 2019, before the pandemic, there were about 26,500 children enrolled in TK in public schools in the county. Since then, with the help of the state TK expansion, the program grew to about 39,500 children by the 2024-25 school year, according to state data.