For many Boston families it is one of the biggest perks of living in the city — free public preschool — and a national report released Wednesday made clear how fortunate families are to have access to it.
Boston was one of just five cities to receive the highest rating, a gold medal, for its commitment to providing a quality preschool experience to at least 30 percent of its 4-year-olds, according to the report by the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University and City Health, an initiative of the de Beaumont Foundation and Kaiser Permanente.
The other gold-medal rated cities were Charlotte, N.C.; Nashville; New York City; and San Antonio. In all, the report sought out to highlight which of the nation’s 40 largest cities were making investments to expand access to and the quality of public preschool and which were not.