Preschool for All Seats Will Double Next Year, Multnomah County Says

Multhomah County says it will almost double the number of taxpayer-funded Preschool for All seats available to students in the 2026-27 school year.

The county has offered 7,460 seats to preschool providers, it said in a press release today, up from the current capacity of 3,844 seats. The number exceeds county targets, including a 6,500-7,000 range for next year set before the pandemic.

The figure is a victory for Multnomah County, which has endured relentless criticism for piling up more than $600 million in the Preschool for All account while its general fund faces a $10 million deficit for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Managers of the universal preschool iniriative say the massive stash is required to cover growth in the program in coming decades.

The win comes with caveats.

“It’s important to note that this is the first step in a multi-stage process,” Multnomah County said. “The final confirmed number of seats will naturally be lower based on the final decisions of providers to participate and the successful completion of all necessary logistical requirements, such as site construction and passing final facility inspections.”

The Preschool for All program is funded by a 1.5% tax on individual income above $125,000. For joint filers, the threshold is $200,000. There’s an additional 1.5% levy on taxable income over $250,000 for individuals and $400,000 for joint filers.

The reported gusher in seats comes the same week a demographer presented data to the county’s Preschool for All Technical Advisory Group, first reported by The Oregonian, showing that, at full capacity, the program likely will have far fewer students because of declining birth rates and a net exodus of families with preschool age children.

The county has been operating under the assumption that it will will have to pay for 11,200 seats by 2030 to provide one to every family that wants one. New demographic modeling suggests that it may need cash to cover just 7,568.

“We’re down, down, down,” Charles Rynerson, a demographer at Flo Analytics, told the advisory group in a public meeting yesterday, describing a table of births by fiscal year.

“There are more children moving out of Multnomah County than into it between birth and age three,” Rynerson said.

County Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards, a frequent critic of County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, who championed passage of the preschool program, excoriated its managers for getting the numbers wrong.

“This fundamentally changes all of the program’s assumptions and raises questions about the county’s ability to effectively and confidently manage the PFA program,” Brim-Edwards said in a press release. “I have for years raised questions about the data the program uses in projections of preschoolers and needed program costs.”

For now, though, demand is strong, the county said today.

“Overall, the number of seats requested by existing providers increased by approximately 60% for the upcoming school year,” the county said. “The surge in demand, combined with strong interest from new providers, will allow the county to offer far more seats than previously announced.”

An added benefit: more than half of all new Preschool for All providers are small businesses, the county said. The new seats are spread across 192 providers. Families are the big winners, the county said, saving them $18,600 per child each year.

Providers must confirm their seat allocation by Dec. 15, then meet the “facility readiness deadline” and insurance requirements. Final seat numbers will be confirmed in the spring.

Families interested in applying for Preschool for All may visit pfa.multco.us.