Photo: Alessandra Hartkopf for Strategies for Children

Massachusetts’ legislators are listening, so please share your experiences.

Last week, the state’s Joint Committee on Education held part one of a virtual hearing on early education and care during the COVID-19 emergency. A video of that hearing is posted here.

Tomorrow — Tuesday, July 7, 2020 — the committee will hold part two.

You can join in by emailing written testimony through tomorrow at 5 p.m. to both of the committee’s chairs. Representative Alice Peisch (D-Wellesley) can be reached at Alice.Peisch@mahouse.gov. And the email address for Senator Jason Lewis (D-Winchester) is Jason.Lewis@masenate.gov.

It’s crucial to tell state legislators about the challenges that early educator and care providers will face as they reopen their programs. And, sadly, it’s also important to discuss that fact that some programs will not be financially able to reopen.

“Over the last two weeks, we have heard heartbreaking stories from directors and family child care of providers who are borrowing from their reserves in the hope of a child care bailout that may never come,” Amy O’Leary wrote in the testimony she shared at last week’s hearing. O’Leary is the director of Strategies for Children’s Early Education for All Campaign.

“Providers are considering staff reductions and salary cuts for a workforce that already makes poverty-level wages.,” O’Leary adds. “Other potential solutions, increasing tuition rates and changing program hours, will place a heavy burden on working families.”

What’s needed instead, O’Leary says, is better planning, more accurate data on demand for care, and new funding mechanisms.

“We need to change funding models,” O’Leary’s testimony explains. “It is not sustainable to fund based on enrollment, per child / per day. Imagine if we tried to run a transportation system based on the per rider fare alone. It does not work. We need cost-based financing.”

The joint committee also heard from:

• Jim Peyser, Massachusetts Secretary of Education

• Samantha Aigner-Treworgy, Commissioner of the Department of Early Education and Care

• Linda Spears, Commissioner of the Department of Children & Families

• Bill Eddy, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Association of Early Education & Care

• Maria Moeller, CEO of The Community Group in Lawrence

• Turahn Dorsey, Foundation Fellow, Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation, and

• Kim Dion, Program Director, Child Care Resources at Seven Hills Foundation

As the State House News Service reported, Eddy “told legislators Wednesday that the early education system has a ‘very rocky road’ ahead of it and that the scale of the problem cannot be fully resolved without additional federal investment.”

Dorsey, in his testimony said:

“Businesses across Massachusetts and the country – their executives, boards of directors and, as the case may be, their shareholders – are awakening to an absolute truth that many of their employees have known for some time… high-quality, reliable and affordable childcare and early learning are essential to getting every child off to the right developmental start in life, to families effectively managing their households and to workplace productivity.”

Dorsey also pointed to the “critical mass of evidence” built “over the better part of the 21st century that both affirms this truth” and reveals that “the early childhood sector is a rare gem… the closest thing we have to a sure policy bet that, when executed with fidelity to best practices, produces phenomenal outcomes when adequately resourced. In fact, it often manages to punch above its weight even when resources are scarce.”

And Moeller, in her testimony, shared details on how powerful early education and care programs can be, noting:

“Last year, we served almost 1600 children in our EEC-licensed programs. We trained over 2,000 early and out-of-school time educators in the region. 100% of the senior teen parents at our Teen Parent Infant Toddler Center graduated from high school. We provided stability for approx. 200 DCF referred children. We employ almost 200 Lawrence residents. Our 50 years of experience in early education and our deep knowledge of our community have helped us build an institution that has become irreplaceable to families in Lawrence.”

COVID-19 is a dire threat to this progress in early childhood programs across the state and across the nation. Meeting this threat will take innovative public policies, so please help shape this policy. Whether you are an early educator or child care director, family child care provider, parent of young children, or a community partner, your advocacy matters.