To support data-driven policymaking and keep early educators, legislators, and advocates informed, the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) is releasing the first in a series of data briefs on its programs.
“Over the past year, EEC has made a concerted effort to build our research and data capacity to promote evidence-based decision making,” Ashley White, EEC’s Director of Research explains. “These data briefs represent another milestone for the agency in increasing transparency around what we’re learning and how we’re using the data we collect through EEC-funded programs.”
The first brief focuses on the state’s Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) program. As EEC’s data brief explains, the funding was “originally designed to keep programs open and accessible to families during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Since then, “C3 has helped both the number of licensed programs and the state’s licensed capacity rebound and now exceed pre-pandemic levels.”
In FY’23, Massachusetts took over sole responsibility for funding the $475 million program; it was the only state in the nation to do so.
This was just the beginning of a deeper, ongoing commitment to direct-to-provider operational funding. Last year, the C3 grant program was made permanent alongside a number of other key reforms passed into law through the state budget.
These policy changes were a long time coming; advocacy for just this type of bedrock funding has been building for years. Since 2018, the Common Start Coalition has been pushing for a new, stable source of funding for providers that could meet the true cost of providing high-quality care and increase early educator salaries without raising costs for families.
Now, as EEC’s brief explains, Massachusetts has seen success. “C3 funds have enabled programs to expand their licensed capacity, recruit and retain staff, and mitigate tuition increases for families.” The brief also summarizes “key findings from recently collected C3 data” gathered from “7,393 licensed and funded programs, which represents 90% of center-based programs (CBCs), 86% of family child care programs (FCCs), and 94% of programs that participate in Child Care Financial Assistance (CCFA).”
Among the findings:
• “licensed child care capacity continues to grow especially in areas that have historically lacked resources and opportunities”
• programs continue to “direct large proportions of C3 funding to workforce-related expenses (68%), including existing payroll and benefits and… salary increases,” and
• educator wages continue to grow (+20%), turnover decreases, and the number of vacant educator positions has gone down
However, as the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation explains, early educator wages remain relatively low compared to other sectors despite this increase and “C3 can be used to incentivize support for the early education workforce with special focus on wages, benefits, career path, and the needs of different providers.”
White adds:
“As the data show, programs are dedicating a significant amount of C3 funding to workforce-related expenses. These findings help the agency make informed decisions about how to improve C3 and maximize the effectiveness of every dollar available.”
Specifically, this data will inform EEC’s work in a number of areas including cost modeling to understand the true cost of providing high-quality care as well as developing a new credential and salary guidance for early educators.
To find more data and information, check out EEC’s MA Research Projects webpage.
It features “research reports, evaluations, and information about
early education and care in Massachusetts.”
EEC’s efforts also tie into research conducted by Harvard Kennedy School Professor Jeffrey Liebman, the author of the October 2024, policy report “An Economic Analysis of the Child Care and Early Education Market in Massachusetts.”
As that report explains, there are persistent funding disparities in education:
“In Massachusetts, public support for early education amounts to approximately $3,700 per child, while public support for K-12 education amounts to approximately $20,000 per child.
“Moreover, there is good reason to expect that without significantly more public financing, the market will continue to provide fewer than the socially optimal number of early education slots, the slots that exist will, on average, be lower than optimal quality, and early education workers will be paid less than they would in a system that delivers optimal care.”
Liebman suggests four steps to carefully sequence reforms and introduce new dollars into the system:
- Increase early educator wages in order to stabilize the workforce, increase program quality, and enable recruitment of the staff necessary to expand the number of slots;
- Make further investments in quality by funding more training and developing credentialing paths;
- Provide funding for capital expenses and other start-up costs so that more providers will increase the number of slots they offer;
- Expand the number of demand-side income-based subsidies, timed so that the additional subsidies become available as new capacity comes online.
Liebman’s framework highlights the importance of mechanisms like the C3 grant program. He notes, “Massachusetts could pay providers to increase early educator wages by adding funds to the C3 program. Any provider accepting the C3 wage subsidies would need to pay each of their educators at least the specified minimum wage for the employee’s role and education/credential level.”
He estimates it would cost the state between $428 million and $1.5 billion depending on the wage parity option.
An important consideration for advocates and policymakers is that last year’s policy reforms require EEC to develop a career ladder with minimum recommended salaries that align with the salaries of public school teachers who have equivalent qualifications. The policy also calls for suggested benefits like health insurance, retirement, and paid leave.
Combining EEC’s data briefs with the creative policy thinking found in Liebman’s and other reports can, in the coming years, help policymakers craft state budgets that build on the strong foundations built by Governor Maura Healey and the Massachusetts Legislature. This would truly meet the early education and care needs of young children and their families.
Marisa Fear, Director of Policy, at Strategies for Children, says, “In many ways, C3 has served as a real-world pilot of the kind of sustained, public investment that advocates have long called for. Its success demonstrates the impact of operational funding and makes the case for increased funding levels that align with EEC’s cost modeling and early educator salary guidance in the near future.”
To learn more, check out the brief and the report.