Cambridge’s universal prekindergarten program guaranteeing 4-year-olds a free slot soon enters its second year with increased demand and the overwhelming majority of families satisfied with their child’s assignment. Still, there are challenges, mainly involving the private school part of the program that Cambridge Office of Early Childhood executive director Cheryl Ohlson says is vital to provide enough seats and to give parents a broad range of choices.
In the first year of the program, 37 percent of the 583 children aged 4 enrolled were attending one of the 23 private preschools. Three-year-olds aren’t guaranteed a seat, but have priority for available space if their families are low income or meet other measures aimed at underserved families; 35 percent of the 281 younger children who got a free seat were in private preschools. The public options include a dozen public school classrooms and nine community programs run by the city’s human services department.
Most cities that provide universal pre-K education employ a “mixed-delivery” system that includes public and private schools because “public school systems are not equipped to provide universal preschool programming,” Ohlson said. There aren’t enough classrooms, and given the “extensive costs related to retrofitting K-5 spaces to be appropriate for 3- and 4-year-olds,” it’s more cost-effective to include private preschools, she said.
Also, private school programs in Cambridge and elsewhere “vary in terms of hours of operation, length of the school year, curricular focus, language immersion, etc. As such, families are able to select preschool programming that meets their child’s and families’ needs,” Ohlson said. For example, many private schools have extended hours and are open during the summer, while Cambridge public preschools operate only during the school day and close during summer vacation.
The city program will pay every participating private preschool $31,281 per Cambridge student in tuition for the next school year, which could help schools that charge less. Yet the program may be contributing to an imbalance between popular and less popular private preschools, leaving some of the schools with too many empty seats, according to a report by the Cambridge Preschool Program at a city roundtable in January. There are already more seats than needed, and preschools continue to spring up; at least six are opening for the 2025-2026 school year, the report said.
Ohlson said the city is trying to get more exact numbers for the oversupply. A search of the state’s licensing database showed that three early education sites were licensed just this year, including The Gardner School on First Street in East Cambridge, part of a national for-profit preschool network.
Religious ownership
At least seven private preschools in the free city program are religious: one Muslim and six Jewish. Five of the Jewish schools, called Preschool of the Arts, are on sites owned by Lubavitch of Cambridge, the Orthodox Jewish organization that won a lawsuit against the city enabling it to expand its center on Banks Street. The head of school is Elkie Zarchi, wife of Lubavitch rabbi Hirschy Zarchi.
The preschools’ website says they do not discriminate on the basis of “race, religion, politics, disability, parental status, gender orientation or any other reason prohibited by federal or state law.” Alef Bet, the other Jewish preschool, posts a similar statement. Al Bustan, the Muslim preschool, says on its website it has an “open admissions policy” and office manager Olga Chvanova said in an email that the preschool doesn’t discriminate “in student admissions or staff employment. Admissions are on a first-come, first-served basis for available openings.”
City councillor Patty Nolan asked at the January roundtable whether the city could give financial support to religious schools; she requested a legal opinion. Ohlson said in June the city law office is still looking into the issue. Boston’s universal pre-K program includes a number of religious private schools.
Private preschool diversity
When Ohlson was asked whether the private preschools are more or less diverse than public school and city-run programs, she said: “Our community-based CPP partners include a variety of preschool programs, and like the public-school programs, most of the community-based programs reflect the diversity of the city and the diversity of our public schools.”
She provided a “data snapshot” from early this year showing the racial breakdown of all children who will attend in the 2025-2026 school year: 43 percent are white, 23 percent black, 21 percent Asian and 14 percent multiracial. The figures don’t add up to 100 percent because of rounding, and they don’t include students who will sign up this summer, which could change the percentages.
State demographic figures for Cambridge public school prekindergarten students in the 2024-2025 school year show a much lower percentage of white students: 27 percent. The proportion of Asian students in city public school pre-K classrooms was also lower, at 18 percent. Other racial categories were similar, but the state reports Hispanic students while the city pre-K program figures didn’t include that category. The city pre-K data snapshot did report that Spanish was the primary language for 4 percent of kids enrolled in the 2024-2025 school year.
Ohlberg said: “Because CPP is a parent-choice system, we do not actively manipulate enrollment to ensure diversity within programs. However, our office works closely with all of our providers to ensure that all families are welcomed and feel a sense of belonging in their programs, and to ensure that all CPP schools provide programming that is culturally responsive,” Ohlson said.
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“The preschools’ website says they does not discriminate on the basis of “race, religion, politics, disability, parental status, gender orientation or any other reason prohibited by federal or state law.”
These are the people teaching our children English?