Building on a foundation of impressive leadership

For two and a half years, Samantha Aigner-Treworgy served as commissioner of the Department of Early Education and Care, and here at Strategies for Children, we are grateful for her leadership.

Commissioner Sam, as she asked people to call her, has been a bold, innovative leader who has made transformational changes in a field that has historically been undervalued and overlooked. She stepped down today. And at the Department of Early Education and Care Board meeting , she thanked the field saying it was an honor to do this work. She has also shared this letter.

Her outreach and engagement with the field – with directors, educators, family child care providers, school-age staff, and families – has been unprecedented and inspiring. Through town halls, Zoom events, strategic planning sessions, and in-person visits, she connected with people across the state. 

She has also built partnerships with likely and unlikely allies, based on her belief that everyone can help leverage public and private resources to build a stronger system of early education and care.

And six months into her tenure, she faced the demands of leading through a global pandemic. This was a test of her professional strength and her problem-solving skills, and she met the challenge, developing policies that were models for the rest of the country. These include: 

• setting up the nation’s first emergency child care program for essential workers in 10 days 

• paying the fees for families who had subsidized child care slots until last month, helping families for a much longer time than other states have 

• distributing personal protective equipment to EEC programs, and 

• working with Neighborhood Villages to set up Covid testing opportunities for children and educators

When the federal government began distributing Covid relief funds, Commissioner Sam developed the Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) formula to distribute these federal dollars. As we blogged at the time, C3 allocated funding based on programs’ licensed capacity, and the formula made an “equity adjustment” for programs that serve traditionally marginalized communities.

Strategies for Children partnered with EEC to promote the new C3 grants to the field in a series of bilingual webinars and provider panels.

C3 operational grants have supported fixed costs for all licensed EEC programs, and since July 2021, programs have received more than $200 million. Data shows that this investment has had a significant stabilizing effect: preventing program closures, stabilizing budget volatility, and supporting salary increases for educators. 

This work made Massachusetts one of the first states to systematically distribute this funding to programs. Now, the state can keep C3 going if it acts on Governor Charlie Baker’s supplemental budget proposal to invest $450 million in state funding in the program through FY ’23. 

This is a critical moment for early education and care. The pandemic has forced the country, and much of the world, to recognize how crucial early childhood programs are for children, families, and the economy. Early childhood teachers and staff are overworked and exhausted, but still hopeful that the country can and will invest in the field.

The coming weeks and months also hold key developments on the state level. Later this month, the Special Commission on Early Education and Care Economic Review Commission is expected to release its report, which will make policy and funding recommendations. Budget season is also gearing up. In addition to the governor’s supplemental budget, the Legislature has to hammer out the state’s fiscal year ’23 budget. The Legislature could also pass the Common Start Legislation (H.605/S.362), which would create more affordable and accessible high-quality early childhood programs.

Policy-watchers also see action on the federal level that could lead to much needed national investments in child care and pre-K.

Moving forward, as we thank Commissioner Sam and wish her well, we also want to build on her progress. We are calling on state and federal officials to be resilient and bold. We cannot simply patch up early education and care. We need to increase our investment in innovative change so that we can build a well-funded, 21^st century early childhood system.