North Carolina early childhood advocates consult with their peers in Boston and beyond

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One of the most effective strategies that early educators use is collaboration. Whether they are working in the same program or the same city, state, or nation, early educators are talking to each other about how to mend, strengthen, and grow early childhood programs.

So last month, it was exciting to have the early child care team from North Carolina’s EducationNC (EdNC) come to Boston and visit Mission Grammar School-Our Lady of Perpetual Help, joining “a delegation from California and leaders from Boston Public Schools to share challenges and opportunities in providing universal pre-k — and how religious schools can collaborate with public schools” to serve more students, as EdNC explains on its website.

EdNC is a nonprofit organization that “works to expand educational opportunities for all students in North Carolina, increase their academic attainment, and improve the performance of the state’s public schools.”

Amy O’Leary, the executive director of Strategies for Children also attended the Boston event.

Located in Boston’s Mission Hill neighborhood, Mission Grammar is a college prep school that offers early childhood programs for infants and educates its “scholars” through the sixth grade.

As the EdNC article explains, “Mission Grammar School accepts vouchers, and in 2020, the school became the first Catholic school to partner with the Boston Public Schools and the city of Boston to provide universal pre-K.” This program offers “reading and math instruction using the BPS Focus on Pre-K curriculum, in which all of our staff have received extensive training.”

Aliece “Ali” Dutson, Mission Grammar’s president, tells EdNC that “from July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2024, Mission Grammar School will receive $2,047,460 to provide universal pre-k through a grant agreement with the city.”

In addition, she says, “the collaboration has increased sustainability, teacher quality, and student and educator retention for her school.”

Dutson has also become an advocate for early education, testifying last month at a Massachusetts State House hearing on early education and care in support of the Common Start Bill. 

In addition to visiting Mission Grammar, EdNC’s early child care team also visited the Cambridge Public Schools, the Boys and Girls Club in Dorchester, and the Salem Public Schools.

EdNC On the Road

What led to this road trip?

“In fall 2022, EdNC’s Katie Dukes asked a group of students getting their master’s in public policy at Duke University a question,” EdNC’s article says. “She wanted to know: What are some existing models for government-funded or subsidized early care and education (birth-to-5) that could serve as potential blueprints for North Carolina?

“The students’ research has informed our reporting on early child care, including the identification of five states where Katie and Liz wanted to ‘go and see’ and learn more.”

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EdNC’s early child care team has been visiting multiple states including Michigan, which has a Tri-Share Child Care Program that “assists qualifying employees, who work with participating employers, with child care costs.” Child care expenses are “shared by the employer, the employee, and the State of Michigan with each contributing one-third of the cost. Tri-Share assists qualifying employees who have an income above 200% and below 325% of the Federal Poverty Level.”

North Carolina will be launching “a pilot in three counties” that’s based on Michigan’s program and also “splits the cost of child care between businesses, employees, and state government.”

The EdNC team has also traveled to Vermont to “learn more about the difference that state investment is already making in its early childhood landscape,” according to an EdNC article. Through legislation called Act 76, Vermont is using a new payroll tax to provide $125 million a year in child care funding across the state.

Unfortunately, the news in North Carolina isn’t as good.

EdNC says the state “faces child care closures as programs run out of federal pandemic relief funds next summer from the American Rescue Plan Act. The state legislature did not step in with substantial funding to stabilize the industry despite calls to do so from advocates, providers, legislators, and the business community.”

One result: “Six programs closed last week in western North Carolina, and experts expect higher costs for parents and reduced capacity for programs, along with more closures, in the coming months.”

Learning from other cities and states could help North Carolina protect its early childhood programs. And this kind of collaboration could lead to stronger early childhood programs for children and families across the country.