The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) recently announced that it will be reducing funding to its free preschool program at hundreds of schools in the district. Parents and teachers have been organizing to keep the preschool program open.

Teachers met and rallied at the UTLA headquarters in support of the SRLDP program on Monday. (photo courtesy of UTLA)

LAUSD superintendent Ramon Cortines announced the proposal for cuts to the School Readiness Language Development Program (SRLDP) for preschools on Feb. 20. The Board of Education voted and approved it last month as part of the 2015-2016 Fiscal Stabilization Plan.

Currently, the program is held in 290 schools and has 13,968 students enrolled, according to LAUSD data.

Locally, Cienega Elementary, Wilton Place Elementary, Carthay Center Elementary, Hollywood Primary Center Elementary and Wilshire Crest Elementary will be affected.

LAUSD has approved reducing funding for SRLDP by 45 percent, according to Monica Carazo, spokesperson for LAUSD.

SRLDP prepares 4-year-old students for kindergarten by focusing on oral language skills, creating effective listeners and speakers, using vocabulary appropriately and improving academic readiness. But perhaps what makes this program so unique and effective, according to parents and teachers, is how it incorporates parents into the programming.

For students to be enrolled in the program, parents or guardians must agree to volunteer monthly at the preschool class and assist the teacher. Additionally, they must attend parent meetings and take part in parent education workshops.

Marcy Guerrero is one of several parents who are fighting to keep the preschool program open. Her two children went through the SRLDP programming at Wilshire Crest Elementary School. Both her brother and sister attended the school as well.

“It is absolutely important. It’s such a gift to these children. I thought, ‘Why am I going take my daughter to preschool if all they’re going to do is play?’ I had no idea what they were going to do. My daughter left the program learning all her numbers, letters, even basic reading,” Guerrero said.

The SRLDP started in 1979 as one of several programs implemented by LAUSD to better desegregate schools in the region. Although racially segregated public schools were deemed unconstitutional under Brown vs. the Board of Education in 1954, schools largely continued to remain segregated. More court rulings created precedent for desegregation plans.

According to an LAUSD report, SRLDP was developed to provide early educational opportunities to students in order to improve academic achievement, increase self-esteem, and improve their access to postsecondary opportunities.

“My daughter learned how to spell her first and last name at the age of 4. The environment is amazing. The children learn how to sing songs, and Ms. Washington’s teaching is so vivid,” Guerrero said.

Eileen Washington, known to her students and parent volunteers as Ms. Washington, has been a teacher at Wilshire Crest Elementary School for 31 years and currently teaches preschool. Washington has taught multiple generations of the same families in the neighborhood for decades.

“Eight or nine of my kids are children of children I have taught before,” Washington said.

The SRLDP preschool program is entirely funded by LAUSD. But every year, the district cuts funding, according to Washington.

“They plan to wipe it out. They’re saying that they don’t have the funds to fund the preschool program. But they’ve figured it out in the past. There’s money somewhere — you just have to make it a priority,” she said.

Parents and teachers say that SRLDP acts as an academic readiness and college preparation program.

“College begins before Pre-K. For parents that have money, it may start earlier. But that’s for parents that can afford it. Our program is free,” Washington said.

Guerrero and several parents have signed and circulated an online petition at change.org that sends emails to LAUSD officials and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti urging them to keep funding for SRLDP.

“I mean, what would happen to these children without the preschool program?” Guerrero said.

United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA), which represents 31,000 members in LAUSD, has been organizing its members to attend LAUSD Board of Education meetings to voice support for the preschool program.

On April 14, UTLA is encouraging parents to attend the board of education meeting. The following day at 4:30 p.m., UTLA is hosting a meeting specifically on SRLDP at its headquarters at 3303 Wilshire Blvd.