Newport Independent Schools have taken the lead in the region in proposing to make all-day preschool available for every 4-year-old in the district.

All-day preschool, including summers, not only should get more youngsters ready to learn by kindergarten, but as Newport Superintendent Mike Brandt says, "It may give a lot more families a chance to get into the job market."

As Sunday's Enquirer Forum on the state of women in Greater Cincinnati showed, lack of affordable child care keeps many women here from good jobs and career advancement.

Today, the Newport school board will vote on a five-year strategic plan, which includes much more than birth-to-5-year-old learning. But that preschool piece may prove the shrewdest investment of all. The board and partners such as Head Start and United Way should make it a head-turning success.

Kentucky already requires school districts to provide half-day preschool for 4-year-olds from low-income families and for disabled 3- and 4-year-olds. Newport's elementary schools will continue to offer half-day preschool, but for the other half of the day, kids will be bused to renovated space in a former high school.

School officials say their plan will more than double kids' exposure to curriculum needed for starting kindergarten. This is all about learning, not just baby-sitting. It would be free for many families. Some working parents would pay modest fees.

A 2003 SchoolMatch audit of Newport schools found many children started kindergarten up to two years behind: They didn't know their colors, couldn't count to 10. Some didn't even know what a book is. Such students often never catch up and swell high school dropout rates later.

Newport is outsourcing the home-visit part of the plan to Brighton Center, whose paraprofessionals coach parents of infants and toddlers on how to prepare their children for kindergarten.

Despite Newport's mini-baby boom and young professionals moving in for vintage homes and attractions such as Newport on the Levee, the district's school enrollment will drop to 2,000 next year. Turnover in some schools can rate as high as 50 percent a year. A great preschool program could cut down on families constantly moving and attract newcomers.

Children Inc. executive director Rick Hulefeld, thinks a battery of new nationally normed evaluations given kindergarten classes each year will show which preschools are working and which aren't. All partners agreed to use the same screens. St. Paul's Child Care board even voted to disband to shift funds to the collaborative project.

Newport is leveraging outside dollars for more preschool than it could hope to fund on its own. Ohio reportedly is flush with $1 billion unspent child-care dollars. Other districts in the region should look to Newport for a winning preschool formula.