Photo: Alyssa Haywoode for Strategies for Children
Yesterday, the Massachusetts House Ways and Means committee released its state budget proposal for fiscal year 2019. This budget makes strategic new investments in early educators and in high-quality early education and care, including:
- a $20 million rate reserve for early educators, enabling programs to support teacher compensation, recruitment, and retention
- a new $8.5 million EEC workforce development initiative, and
- increases for Access Management and Head Start
Overall, the budget totals $41 billion, representing a 3.1 percent increase over current fiscal year 2018 appropriations. (These numbers could change if, as MassLive.com reports, voters approve several ballot questions that could impact state revenues.)
In his letter to House members, House Ways and Means Chair Jeffrey Sánchez said:
“Under the leadership of Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, Massachusetts has prioritized the field of early education and care (EEC), investing in both access and quality. This budget continues these historic investments, including another $20 million rate reserve for early educators, which will help to raise salaries allowing education providers to recruit and retain high quality staff. This includes $18 million to cover a 5% rate increase for center-based EEC providers, as well as an increase to the add-on rate for Department of Children and Families (DCF) children. Lastly, we create a new $8.5M EEC workforce development initiative to coordinate professional development and higher education opportunities for early educators in conjunction with Massachusetts community colleges. Overall, this funding ensures Massachusetts’s youngest residents receive the best possible care from experienced teachers during their most formative years.”
Visit our website to see how specific early education and care line items fared in the budget.
Be sure to thank your state representatives. Join us at the State House on Monday, April 23 for Advocacy Day for Early Education & Care and School Age Programs. Meet your elected officials and tell them the impact that early education funding has on children, families, and educators.
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 
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