A new report calls for building on pandemic investments to create a thriving early education and care system in Massachusetts

A new report calls for building on pandemic investments to create a thriving early education and care system in Massachusetts

How can Massachusetts build on the nation’s pandemic-related investments in early education and care and become a bold, comprehensive leader in funding programs for young children “in a way that catapults the sector forward”? 

That’s one of a list of key questions being addressed in a new report — Investment in Early Education and Care in Massachusetts: Celebrating Successes, Looking Ahead — released by The Boston Foundation and the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy.

After the pandemic “triggered a crisis” in early education early and care, federal Covid funds as well as increased support from cities, states, funders, and businesses stabilized the sector and states grew more strategic.

Once the federal funding ran out, Massachusetts distinguished itself by continuing to provide stabilization funding through Commonwealth Cares for Children or C3 grants. The report praises this funding, calling it one of the state’s high-level successes. The report also points to three high-level challenges the state has to address:

• continuing to increase state spending to cover the true cost of caring for children

• raising compensation to attract and retain early educators and providers, and

• developing broad based solutions that address the complex needs of a mixed delivery system

On Tuesday, a release event for the report featured policymakers, advocates, funders, and providers, including Amy O’Leary, the executive director of Strategies for Children. 

Among the speakers was Latoya Gayle, senior director of advocacy at Neighborhood Villages, who talked about how important it is that Massachusetts has chosen to fund early childhood stabilization grants on its own. 

“If you’re at a restaurant, you don’t know what’s going on behind the house, right?” Gayle says. “You just know, I ordered something. You don’t know all the chaos that was going on in the kitchen. And so I think from a family perspective, families don’t know what’s going on in the kitchen.” 

“But if you are a provider [who knows about C3 grants], you’re like, oh, wow, we actually have tomatoes today, we can put tomatoes on the sandwich.We actually can make sure we have enough servers here today, so we can have more people in the dining room. And so I think for providers it’s been really nice to — especially now that C3 is codified — to say, “I know that there is this pool of money that I can count on.”

O’Leary adds, “Even when I was preschool teacher at Ellis, I couldn’t imagine a pot of money that was designed to help and just support and bolster.” 

And Northeastern University Professor Kim Lucas urged the audience to keep an eye on the future, adding, “We’re leaders in the field, and that’s great, but what does that mean for us in 5, 10, 15 years?”

Here’s the full program:

Welcome

Danubia Camargos Silva, Senior Program Officer for Child Well-Being, The Boston Foundation

Chad d’Entremont, Ph.D., Executive Director, The Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy

Opening Remarks

Alice H. Peisch, Representative, State of Massachusetts

Research Presentation

Brian McGahie, Senior Associate, The Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy

Elle Jansen, Chief of Staff, The Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy

Panel Discussion and Q&A

Latoya Gayle, Senior Director of Advocacy, Neighborhood Villages

Colin Jones, Deputy Policy Director, Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center

Kim Lucas, Ph.D., Professor of the Practice in Public Policy and Economic Justice, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, EEC Board Member, Northeastern University

Amy O’Leary, Executive Director, Strategies for Children

Tom Weber, Foundation Fellow & Executive Director, Eastern Bank Foundation (Moderator)

Closing Remarks

Chad d’Entremont, Ph.D., Executive Director, The Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy

The report also poses these questions:

• Where should funding come from to cover the true cost of early education and care?

• How can the sector coordinate funding streams to create an efficient, unified funding system?

• How can the sector best leverage the mixed delivery system? And,

• How can the sector advance the early educator profession?

The report’s recommendations are to:

• “Determine the feasibility of creating a foundation budget for early education and care providers.”

• “Invest more in preschool partnerships, for instance by incentivizing local investment with matching dollars through the Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative (CPPI).”

• “Ensure that early educator career pathways support opportunities for career advancement outside of higher education.”

• “Create a centralized, user-friendly online platform for providers to access information on and apply for available funding,” and 

• “Expand funding to subsidize the cost of early education and care for the children of early educators.”

As the report notes:

“By celebrating the successes of recent years and looking ahead to the creation of a coordinated funding system, the early education and care sector in Massachusetts can leverage this moment to chart a course for its financial future. Optimizing the use of current funding is critical to laying the groundwork for increased future investment. In doing so, Massachusetts can continue to make great strides in supporting providers, families, and children— advancing economic opportunity and whole-child development across the state.”

To learn more, check out the report and the video of the release event and share its content with your networks and your elected officials.