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Eight years into Philadelphia’s free prekindergarten program, city officials seem to agree on one point: The city needs more funding to make early education affordable and accessible.
But some members of the City Council want Philadelphia to reconsider the city tax that has paid for a large part of the program, known as PHLpreK, since its inception in 2017.
That tax, the Philadelphia beverage tax, adds 1.5 cents per ounce of soda sold in the city. Last year, it brought in $68 million, which the city used to pay for PHLpreK, as well as a few other programs.
But Councilmember Jim Harrity, who has led the charge to reexamine the beverage tax, and some of his colleagues say the beverage tax does more harm to the city than good, because it adds strain to grocery stores that provide employment and food in the city. They also say it imposes costs on low-income families by increasing their grocery bills.
“I want to find a way to pay for this program and expand” PHLpreK, Harrity said during a City Council hearing on Monday. “Right now, we can’t expand [anything].”
Harrity stopped short of calling to repeal the tax, but said he wanted to explore alternate ways to fund the pre-K program.
He also pointed out that the amount of money the tax has brought in each year has slightly declined since it was enacted, leaving the programs it was supposed to fund relying increasingly on the city’s other streams of funding.
“This was a mistake from the get-go,” said Councilmember Brian O’Neill, adding that he worried the tax has led to closed grocery stores and lost union jobs. “It’s a job-killer. It’s regressive.”
But pre-K advocates and preschool owners, who crowded into the City Council hearing with groups of preschoolers Monday morning, said the beverage tax revenue is vital to ensuring families can access child care and providers can keep their doors open.
“Without stable education, without an opportunity for families to go to work, this city is not going to thrive,” said Rosanna Matos, a public policy specialist with the local advocacy organization FirstUp. “If we lose PHLpreK, we risk losing the infrastructure that supports our children, our families, and our workforce.”
Early education desperately needs more funding, advocates say
Since the city launched its free pre-K program, it has served more than 30,000 children, according to city data. This school year, it’s offered 5,250 slots for families in the city. Any family, regardless of income, is eligible to apply.
The program has had some challenges since its launch, including providers struggling to find staff and more than 100 preschools closing in the city after the pandemic. Over the past five years, around 90% of PHLpreK spots have been filled each year, according to data from the city’s Office of Children and Families, meaning that a few hundred seats have been left empty each year.
Still, officials and advocates say current funding only fills a fraction of the need of the around 40,000 3- and 4-year-olds in the city.
The federal government pays for an additional 6,000 free pre-K slots in the city through Head Start, and the state’s Pre-K Counts program pays for around 5,000 more. But not all families can use those programs due to income restrictions.
The beverage tax does not cover the full price tag of the city’s free pre-K program, which officials estimate will cost around $73 million this fiscal year, but helps offset a large portion of the cost. The tax also helps fund the city’s community school initiative and the city’s “rebuild” program, which has been used to build and update playgrounds and recreational centers.
No councilmember has proposed repealing the beverage tax, and it was unclear after the hearing Monday whether Harrity or other critics of the tax plan to do so soon. Harrity did say he may propose launching a working group to study the beverage tax and whether a combination of taxes and philanthropic efforts could be used to fund pre-K.
Other councilmembers who participated in the hearing, including Councilmember Kendra Brooks, defended the tax.
Zakiyyah Boone, CEO of Wonderspring Early Education, which operates preschools in Philadelphia and the surrounding area, said she’s open to working with officials and other industries to improve the funding system.
But she emphasized that investing in early education is essential for Philadelphia, especially as many other pre-K funding streams become increasingly uncertain.
The Trump administration has threatened to cut funding for Head Start and has barred undocumented children from enrolling. State-funded pre-K programs are under strain, and some owners say they may have to close their programs as a state budget impasse stretches nearly four months long.
To Boone and other providers, those funding problems have underscored the need for consistency at the city level.
“Repealing or even reducing the tax risks destabilizing the funding stream at a time when … so much is unstable,” said Boone.
Rebecca Redelmeier is a reporter at Chalkbeat Philadelphia. She writes about public schools, early childhood education, and issues that affect students, families, and educators across Philadelphia. Contact Rebecca at rredelmeier@chalkbeat.org.
