Shortly after Polis made those phone calls to the families of the 4-year-olds, he told me about them during a fireside chat, where we discussed Colorado’s progress in moving on, as he says, “from laggard to early leader in early childhood education,” and what it would take for other states to follow suit.

The conversation was streamed live to a virtual audience at the sixth annual Reagan Institute Education Summit on May 24. A recording of it has since been made public. Below, you can read the highlights of the conversation, which have been edited and condensed for clarity, or watch the full discussion.

EdSurge: You have made early childhood education a top priority for your administration. I would love to know the backstory there. What inspired your interest in this space?

Governor Jared Polis: Well, I’ve been involved in education for over 20 years – I served on the Colorado State Board of Education – and it was really the data that first got me involved in an education universal high quality for early childhood. [I saw] the strong body of evidence that not only shows the financial benefits of early childhood education, in terms of reducing grade repetition and reducing young people’s judgment, but equally important to closing the achievement gap before it from happening, which is far more effective than anything we have to do and try to do in fifth grade and eighth grade and 10th grade. It really does make a huge difference – those early years – in giving every child a head start.

The universal preschool program is obviously one of your great victories as governor of Colorado. Can you explain a bit what it will look like and how you think it is going so far?

polished: When I became governor of Colorado, we only had half a day of kindergarten. And again, kindergarten was only for, if you will, the wealthy, with some low-income slots. Everyone had a hard time understanding. So the first thing we did in my very first year was we made full-day kindergarten available to all families, which saved families about $400 to $500 per year. But in addition, it ensured that everyone could access full-time kindergarten, because before that, there were families who could not afford it, so some children came home at 11:30 a.m. and did not have the learning time other children did.

After putting this in place, we went to voters with a free kindergarten for everyone. The funding mechanism that we used is actually a tax on vaping or nicotine. We had this kind of loophole where vaping had no tax even though cigarettes were taxed.

It is a dedicated source of funding, which is important. It is not the subject of a political debate. It is not subject to the arrival and pursuit of different parties or politicians. This is a dedicated funding source for free universal early education, which we are rolling out now this fall.

The demand is very strong. Over 25,000 families have already signed up and, in fact, they have just been matched with their preschool provider. Ninety-one percent matched [with] their first [choice]and those who haven’t can go back and choose another supplier.

We call it a [mixed-delivery program]. We wanted everyone who provides quality preschool to be able to [participate in] this program to serve families at a time when costs are rising and families are making sacrifices. We didn’t want that sacrifice to be the education of their children.

What about early childhood educators? Many of them are making huge personal and financial sacrifices to continue providing care and education in what amounts to a broken system in this country. How Does the State of Colorado Support Early Childhood Educators?

polished: We support them in two ways. First of all, [we’re providing programs with] the robust financing of universal preschool education, spending about $6,000 per student. So for a class of 10, it’s about $60,000. And preschool is part-time; usually it’s about 15 to 20 hours a week. So you could often have, in fact, around $120,000 in funding, if [the program is] run two classes of 10. That doesn’t mean it’s all going to [the educators]. As you know, there is a lot of overhead [to run an early childhood program]. But the bottom line is that this strong source of funding did not exist before.

The pay scale is approaching the K-12 professional pay scale – not that we pay our K-12 teachers enough, we need to do more there. But at the very least, we want to make sure our early childhood educators have that level of professional compensation that allows them to support themselves.

For the future pipeline, we have made training to become a Certified Early Childhood Educator free through our community college systems. We looked at a few in-demand jobs [with] labor shortages. Early childhood education was one of those professions, and we said, “We’re going to make it free. And it’s a real “free”, as I like to say. There is no shipping and handling. There are no textbook fees. There are no class fees.

It’s a real free that allows them to pursue this career. Asking people to go into debt and make huge sacrifices without the huge earning potential is a much harder ask. And of course, through the programs that we made free, it increased participation by about 20 to 30%. We are excited to do this to kind of open the doors to the early childhood profession.

You have managed to bring people together and form coalitions despite a difficult national political climate. Tell me about your commitment to good partisan politics, especially in this environment.

polished: When I was first elected in 2018, running on a full-time kindergarten platform and adding preschool, my very first call as governor-elect was at a Republican Representative Jim Wilson of Salida, Colorado, a former superintendent who worked full-time in kindergarten for many years. And I said, ‘We’ll do it.’ He was our main sponsor, along with Democrat Barb McLachlan, on the full-day kindergarten bill.

When we built the coalition around preschool, it moved into very conservative ridings. I mean, it happened in red counties and blue counties, because everyone – 67.8% of people in the state – Republican or Democrat, Conservative or Liberal, agrees that kids should be able to go kindergarten. So it really reverberated through the partisan divide, the geographic divide, the economic divide. And we are very happy that this fall, the children of Colorado will be able to go to preschool.

I’ve heard so many people say that early childhood education is – or can be and should be – a bipartisan issue. Obviously in the state you found that to be true, but did you find that outside of Colorado?

polished: You know, it’s harder to say. I worked on this issue in Congress, nationally. I had high hopes that everything in Build Back Better could potentially include preschool. This was obviously not the case. It’s a little more difficult at the national level because you get into a little more ideological discussion about what the federal government should or shouldn’t be involved in.

But I think if people are driven by data, at least making sure more kids have access to early education, [they’ll see that] it is convenient and effective. It can achieve goals shared by conservatives and progressives, such as reducing crime and improving the upward mobility of families. These are all good things, and I encourage people on both sides to consider supporting early childhood education, no matter what level of government they work in. This could be at the school district level or at the municipal, state or federal level. level.

You mentioned your time in Congress. I’m curious how your understanding of early childhood education has evolved since?

polished: I’ve always been a strong advocate, but frankly, the ability to do more and do it rather than just talk about it is part of what pushed me down this path as governor.

I certainly spent a decade talking about it. We started universal preschool bills, and it was a great effort. And there was real opportunity after I left; Build Back Better almost did it. But the thing is, that still hasn’t happened nationally.

I’m patient, but 10 years is a long time, so I went home to do it in Colorado rather than talk to Congress about it probably for another 10 years.

Anyone can get involved – a district, a city, mayors, governors and members of Congress – and I always hope that one day we will have this opportunity for early childhood education across the country. .

What advice do you have for other governors or leaders looking to impact the early years landscape, whether nationally or in their jurisdictions?

polished: This is a great advantage for the inhabitants of your state. It can save people money, improve the workforce today, invest in the next generation, [and it’s] an opportunity to improve academic success and achievement. And it really aligns the needs of today with the needs of tomorrow in a compelling way that can help set your state up for success.

We are excited about this new direction and moving Colorado from laggard to leader in early childhood. And of course, we are moving forward with more opportunities for high quality childcare, including employer and on-site childcare. [options], so parents don’t have to run around so much and can visit their child during lunch. We want to be at the forefront of making Colorado the best state to have kids in.