Photo: Strategies for Children

“Tell your stories,” House Speaker Robert DeLeo (D-Winthrop) said yesterday to a standing-room-only crowd who gathered beneath the flags in the State House’s Great Hall for “Advocacy Day for Early Education and Care and School-Age Programs.”

Carrying signs, pushing strollers, and wearing red — the color advocates were asked to wear for the day — close to 500 early educators and advocates listened to state legislators, advocates, an early education teacher, and a parent.

The event launched with a warm welcome from Leo Delaney, CEO of Ellis Memorial and president of MADCA’s Board of Directors, who told all those assembled, “what we need today more than ever is you,” reaching out to lawmakers and asking them to invest in children’s early education and care.

Bill Eddy, executive director of MADCA, revved up the proceedings, saying “We’re going to make noise because what you do matters so much.”

“Let me begin by thanking you for your advocacy here today,” said Tom Weber, commissioner of the Department of Early Education and Care. “It’s very important work that you do.”

Then the crowd hit the State House halls, taking DeLeo’s advice and telling their stories to their state senators and representatives.

It was a chance to ask legislators to invest in early education and care and increase the quality and availability of these programs. Read about last year’s day here.

Advocacy Day’s 2014 sponsors are: MADCA; Alliance of Massachusetts YMCAs; Massachusetts Head Start Association; Massachusetts Association for Community Action (MASSCAP); Children’s Investment Fund; Bessie Tartt Wilson Initiative for Children; Alliance on Teen Pregnancy; Horizons for Homeless Children; Associated Early Care and Education; Massachusetts Child Care Resource and Referral Network; ABCD Boston; Stand for Children; United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley; Thrive in 5; Strategies for Children/Early Education for All Campaign; Massachusetts Fair Share; Massachusetts Association for the Education of Young Children (MAAEYC), For Kids Only Afterschool.

Highlights from the Advocacy Day Speakers

“I am fortunate to work for an extremely supportive organization,” Mary Spargo said. A teacher at State Street Early Learning Center at the South Shore YMCA in Quincy, Spargo explained that her interest in early education started in high school. She knew, however, that to best help children, she needed more education herself. She received an early educators scholarship from Massachusetts, and her organization also helped pay for her training. Now she works with children from all over the world who speak 14 different languages. Quoting William Butler Yeats, Spargo said, “Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.”

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 “We all know that the future of Massachusetts and its economy depends on the future of its leaders and innovators, Senate President Therese Murray (D-Plymouth) said. “And to cultivate leaders and innovators, we must start from the earliest beginnings.”

Murray also pointed to STEM — science, technology, engineering, and math — noting that jobs in this sector are growing quickly. “By emphasizing these skills and experiences at the early years of development, we are truly putting our children ahead and on the path to success. I’m proud to say that a STEM preschool program recently opened in the Town of Sandwich in my District, and I am confident that this program will become an educational model for the rest of the commonwealth.”

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“I’m really here to say, ‘Thank you.’ Thank you for the work that you do,” DeLeo said. “The House is proud to support the essential work that you do everyday.”

“I also recognize that our work together is not done,” DeLeo said, referring to the “thoughtful recommendations” from the Special Commission on Early Education and Care Operations and Finance.

“As you visit the State House here today, please, most importantly, tell your stories, and impress upon my colleagues of the House how your programs, how your services impact the children and families in their district.”

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“After each of my sons were born, I was back in the office within a week of their birth because I had to be,” Jill McCain Santiago told the audience. An immigration lawyer (with $120,000 in student loan debt) and a parent, she described bringing her infant sons to her office and using a paralegal as a babysitter when she had to go to court.

She and her husband scrambled to find child care, and for a year, he stayed home to care for their sons. They struggled to find affordable options and spent 14 months waiting to get a child care voucher for their older son, and two years waiting to get one for their younger son.

“Now we really see that we’re not able to provide them with what you all are able to provide them — as much as we tried,” McCain Santiago said of how much her sons have learned in their early education and care programs. Her husband now has a job. Her son is prepared for kindergarten, and McCain Santiago has deep empathy for parents caught in the paradox of not being able to afford child care and not being able to afford staying home to care for their children.

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“I’m never surprised to come in here and see the room filled with sisters and a few good men. You all aren’t stupid; this is where the money is,” State Representative Gloria Fox (D-Roxbury) said, calling on the audience to tell their stories to her colleagues.

“You’re in the people’s House because it takes the necessary resources to educate our babies and to keep them safe and sound in all of communities.”

“You’re going to tell your stories, let me tell you mine,” Fox said, weaving in her own history by explaining that years ago, Head Start her given both her and her sons a head start.

“We’re not going to be done up here until July One,” Fox said of the Legislature’s work on the budget. “Don’t make this the only time that you come to the people’s House. You paid for it. Visit it early and often.”

Fox’s parting advice: “So I say to each and every one of you: Go forth. Tell your story. And get the money!”

Educators and Advocates Share their Messages for the Legislature

Kristen Ternucco and a group from South End Head Start planned to go see Representative Byron Rushing (D-South End), Representative Aaron Michlewitz (D-Boston), and Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz (D-Boston). Part of Ternucco’s message for legislators: Pay attention to the 29 percent turnover rate among early educators. That turnover creates a lack of continuity that hurts children, according to Ternucco, a family and community engagement supervisor. Given that 85 percent of children’s brain development happens by age 5, Ternucco said, Massachusetts ought to invest more in these children’s teachers.

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Mark Culliton, the CEO of College Bound, (which runs early education and out-of-school time programs) and a group of students planned to see Senator Linda Dorcena Forry (D-Dorchester) and Representative Daniel Cullinane (D-Dorchester). Their three points: pay early educators a living wage; increase educational access for families in Dorchester; and ensure that children and families are top legislative priorities.

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Sharon Henderson and Betsy Moquin of the YMCA of Central Massachusetts planned to speak to Representative Matthew Beaton (R-Shrewsbury), Senator Harriette Chandler (D-Worcester), and several other legislators. They wanted to ask for more access to early education and care. Their message: early education and care is a lot more than babysitting. Some parents assume that it makes sense to keep very young children at home, but some children will be more ready for school if they’ve attended high-quality preschools. enroll in

Moquin also said she was glad to her McCain Santiago’s presentation about struggling to find child care, because a parent who is a lawyer doesn’t fit people’s perceptions of who needs child care vouchers. Indeed, Massachusetts should recognize and celebrate the diverse parents who are helped by having subsidized child care.

Any Day Can be Advocacy Day

Advocacy Day is officially once a year, but it’s always a good day to contact your state representative or senator and share your thoughts about early education and care in the commonwealth. Invite your elected official to events. And talk to their chiefs of staff. As an advocate, you can provide a crucial perspective by sharing the needs of children and families.

Even if you can’t get to Boston, you can still participate! Click here to find out who represents you and for sample scripts for educators and parents to call into the State House.