Photo: Alastair Pike, Office of Governor Charlie Baker. Source: Governor Baker’s Flickr page.
On Wednesday, January 24, 2018, Governor Charlie Baker unveiled a $40.9 billion budget proposal for fiscal year 2019. This would be a 2.6% increase over current spending levels.
In his State of the Commonwealth speech, Governor Baker highlighted recent investments in the early education and care workforce: “To help the next generation of students get off to a good start, we delivered, with your support, one of the largest increases in funding for early childhood education in over a decade in our 2018 budget. All in, we’ve increased state spending on early education rates, delivering a $45 million wage increase for teachers.”
The governor’s budget provides a $13.62 million increase for early education and care, primarily through EEC’s two access accounts: Supportive and TANF (3000-3060) and Income Eligible (3000-4060). The budget does not include a separate rate reserve for early educator salaries. Preschool planning grants were not funded.
Visit the Strategies for Children’s website for budget details. The House of Representatives is currently working on its budget, due out in April. Contact your state representative to advocate for increased investments in high-quality early education.
For more information and advocacy opportunities, contact Titus DosRemedios at tdosremedios@strategiesforchildren.org, (617) 330-7387.
Eye on Early Education is a blog of Strategies for Children, an organization that works to ensure that Massachusetts invests the resources needed for all children, from birth to age five, to access high-quality early education programs that prepare them for success in school and life. The blogger, 
eyeonearlyeducation.org 
We cannot rely or depend on annual budget proposals for early educators’ compensation. We need a dedicated funding stream, such as the modestly proposed S255/H1528 bill that sits before the Joint Commission on Education. This proposed bill is designed against/built upon an existing QRIS system, accessible at DEEC web site.
In addition, let’s be clear. The FY17 6% rate increase and the proposed FY19 2% rate increase DOES NOT translate to a wage/salary increase of 6% or 2% respectively for early educators.
[…] the Legislature funded a historic rate increase for early educators, and this year early signs from the governor and House Speaker Robert DeLeo indicate that more support could be on the way. We need to keep this […]