Photo: Alyssa Haywoode for Strategies for Children

The Massachusetts state budget process is underway, so it’s time to advocate for early education and care.

So far, Governor Charlie Baker has filed his FY20 budget proposal.

The House has also debated and passed its budget. And while the House budget includes an important investment in early educator salaries, through a $20 million rate reserve, it does not include any funding for preschool expansion grants. This could have been addressed by a $15 million amendment filed by Rep. Jay Livingstone (D-Boston) that would have funded the state’s Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative. But ultimately, this amendment was not included in the education and local aid amendment that did pass.

Here’s the recent funding history:

Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative (3000-6025)
FY19 Final budget: $5,000,000
FY20 Governor’s budget: $2,500,000
FY20 House budget: not funded
FY20 Senate budget: TBD

The Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative (CPPI) is critical to future preschool expansion in Massachusetts. As we’ve blogged, these funds could be used by the Department of Early Education and Care to replace expiring federal pre-K grants. The federal Preschool Expansion Grant (PEG) has been a catalyst for innovation, and it has been shown to have a positive impact on children’s early literacy and early math skills, on classroom quality, and even on parent economic outcomes. The 48 federally-funded classrooms are located in Boston, Holyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, and Springfield. Massachusetts should not let these high-quality pre-k classrooms close due to lack of state funding.

CPPI preschool funding could also be used to expand grants for communities that have just begun implementation this year, including Somerville, New Bedford, and North Adams. And, most importantly, more state funding would help the dozens of high-need communities, such as Worcester, Fall River, Lynn, and Salem, that have not yet received grants that they could use to begin their preschool expansion plans. This work is crucial. If we are serious about giving all children a level playing field, we must expand high-quality preschool.

Now, the budget process moves to the Senate, which will release its proposed budget in May. Contact your senators directly, and ask them to invest in preschool.

You can:

• email, call, or write letters. Here is a template to get you started.

• encourage your senator to invest $25 million in the Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative (CPPI) (3000-6025).

• explain how important pre-k funding is to your community by sharing;

– the impact of federal pre-K grants

– the impact that the state’s CPPI funding has had, and

– any additional plans you have for pre-K expansion

All communication helps.

Strategies for Children has shared information about state and federal pre-K funding with all the legislators who have the grants in their district. But they may still be unfamiliar with these programs. So please do tell your story and help them understand the importance of this funding for children, families, and educators.

For help with advocacy and messaging, feel free to contact Titus DosRemedios, Strategies’ director of research and policy, at tdosremedios@strategiesforchildren.org or (617) 330-7387.