America-wide universal pre-school is dead, but California forges ahead

“Agua?” a small boy with a long black ponytail stretches up his arm while standing on his toes, waving his red water bottle to and fro. A young bilingual woman, his new teacher, bends over and responds to him in Spanish. He nods and finishes the water in his bottle. Then he spins round and bounces over to a child-size desk to join his peers drawing pictures—from intricate daisies to messy swirls—with crayons. This child, along with about 50,000 other Californian four-year-olds, is experiencing his very first month of free universal pre-kindergarten.