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In a striking reversal from her rhetoric last year, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek today announced the convening of an expert panel to explore creating a statewide universal preschool program.
The panel, co-chaired by two early childhood experts, will look at how to improve existing state childcare programs, how to expand access to infant and toddler care, and how to scale up universal preschool statewide. In a Tuesday afternoon press conference, Kotek said it comes as Oregon tries to match other states—like Vermont or Wisconsin—in providing universal preschool services.
Kotek pitched the initiative as an economic boon. “This is the conversation we need to have in the state, how we support our working families, how we support our economy by making sure parents have affordable early learning and care so they can go to work and support their kids,” Kotek said. “And at the end of the day, what’s best for children is when they have high quality care.”
But the circumstances surrounding the announcement are peculiar. Just last June, Kotek sent a fiery letter to Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson outlining her objections to Preschool for All, the county’s universal preschool program. Kotek said she believed the tax on high earners that bankrolls the county program was driving taxpayers out of Oregon. An eleventh-hour bill in the legislature then attempted to kill the program entirely, seemingly with the governor’s blessing, though it ultimately died in committee. During that same session, legislators cut $45 million from the state’s Department of Early Learning and Care, responsible for state funded preschool programs.
Few of Kotek’s demands regarding the tax gained traction in the months following her letter, including suggestions like pausing tax collection. In August, county commissioners declined to provide tax relief to payers for tax year 2026 as the governor had urged, tabling proposals that included indexing the tax to inflation. Yet Kotek’s announcement today appears to signal a détente between her and Pederson over the county preschool program, just as Kotek gears up for a reelection bid.
“The Governor informed the Chair earlier this month that she was planning to form this task force, and asked the Chair for her recommendation on a subject matter expert to serve on the task force,” says county spokesman Ryan Yambra.
And in a statement to WW, Vega Pederson says she encourages the state to look toward Multnomah County’s program as a model. “We stand ready to provide our expertise so that the success of Preschool for All can expand to all of Oregon’s current and future young families,” she said.
Kotek’s group will look into how to expand child care access with current resources.
“[Achieving universal preschool] is not going to happen overnight,” Kotek said Tuesday afternoon. “We have to put the right people in the room figuring out how we can get there and how we can also pay for that.”
The topic of diminishing availability for state preschool seats has been a big topic as Preschool for All tries to forecast its financial future. Multiple economic forecasting scenarios from the program’s technical advisory group have tried to account for the consequences of fewer preschool seats statewide, which would likely mean increased participation in Preschool for All.
At Tuesday’s press conference, Kotek noted the Early Childhood Care and Learning System Roundtable will make recommendations over the next couple of years. It will start meeting in the next couple of weeks.
The governor said on Tuesday afternoon that it was too early to determine if a universal preschool program at the state level would be means-tested, a demand of state senators who tried to kill the county program last June. Her office did not immediately respond to a question from WW about whether a statewide program would replace the county’s local one.
