How much would it cost for California to provide high-quality early care and education? According to a new report by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley and the Economic Policy Institute, California should be spending at least $30,000 per child enrolled in child care and preschool. That’s almost four times as much as the state currently spends on children in public preschool. The researchers say in order to provide high-quality early education, lead teachers should be paid $77,214 a year, and there would need to be almost three times as many early childhood teachers in the state as there are currently.