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Archive for the ‘Cost and affordability’ Category

Local leadership sets an example

Posted in Business and economy, Child care, Cost and affordability, Funding, MA Legislature, MA state budget, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Pre-kindergarten, tagged , , on February 15, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Photo: Michele McDonald for Strategies for Children

There’s no need to wait for the federal government to invest in early education and care, as a WGBH news story reports. Cities and states can and are taking the lead now.

One example WGBH points to is the city of Lawrence, Mass., which has created a child care scholarship program.

“The childcare nonprofit The Community Group helped design a scholarship program for the city of Lawrence using federal funding to help get more low-income and middle-class families into subsidized daycare.

“ ‘You’re helping a parent be able to go to work and make a better living and learn skills to be able to create a better life for themselves, and hopefully get to a point where they don’t have to have the program because they can’t afford the childcare,’ said Martha Velez, Lawrence’s director of health and human services,” WGBH notes.

We’ve blogged about Lawrence’s efforts here and here.

There’s also leadership at the state level. Massachusetts lawmakers have filed the Common Start bill, which would expand access to child care. Massachusetts also has “ a state commission focused on early education and care, co-chaired by Rep. Alice Peisch (D-Wellesley, Weston, and precinct 4 in Wayland), who is also co-chair of the state’s education committee. The commission’s final report is expected in March, and Peisch said it will include a range of short- and long-term recommendations.

(more…)

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In quotes: the potential of universal pre-K

Posted in Business and economy, Child care, Cost and affordability, Developmentally appropriate practice, Family engagement, Federal, Funding, National, Pre-kindergarten, Quotes, Research, Social-emotional development, tagged , , on January 14, 2022| Leave a Comment »

“Federally funded universal pre-K has the potential to greatly benefit families, children, and the economy at large. A substantial body of research finds that high-quality pre-K can have a meaningful impact on children’s short- and long-term development, providing them with valuable skills to succeed in school and beyond. And two years of pre-K for the child also means two years of reduced child care costs for the parents. A study in Washington, D.C., even found that access to universal pre-K improved mothers’ workforce participation. And yet, despite such clear evidence of the benefits, six states still don’t offer state-funded pre-K programs for four-year-olds, and within the states that do, quality and access vary significantly depending on where a child lives, and very few programs offer universal access. But Build Back Better could provide states with the funding to improve the quality of programs and vastly expand access.”

— “The Universal Benefits of Universal Pre-K,” by Aaron Loewenberg, Abbie Lieberman, and Laura Bornfreund, New America, January 4, 2022

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A new report on Massachusetts’ “fragile” child care system

Posted in Boston, Child care, Cost and affordability, COVID-19, Funding, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Pre-kindergarten, Strategies for Children, tagged , , on December 14, 2021| Leave a Comment »

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Screenshot: The Boston Foundation website

 

A new report from The Boston Foundation – “When the Bough Breaks Why Now Is the Moment to Invest in Massachusetts’ Fragile Child Care System” — sounds an important alarm.

“The early education and care system in Massachusetts is at a breaking point. The Commonwealth has the second most expensive child care market in the United States. Families routinely pay upwards of $20,000 a year for care for their young children,” the report says.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has made an already very challenging situation worse.”

“Without public investment in early education and care, the Massachusetts economy will be unable to fully recover from the coronavirus pandemic.”

The report is based on interviews with local stakeholders who are parents, providers, and advocates, including Amy O’Leary, executive director of Strategies for Children.

“The directors I talk to are panicked,” O’Leary says in the report. “They are in their classroom from morning until night because they can’t find enough staff.”

“When programs are not able to open, when child care centers close their doors, people are going to be mad,” O’Leary adds. “And they are going to say, ‘Why didn’t anyone tell us that this was about to collapse?’” (more…)

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What Build Back Better could do…if it passes in the U.S. Senate

Posted in Business and economy, Child care, Cost and affordability, COVID-19, Federal, Funding, National, Pre-kindergarten, tagged , on December 8, 2021| 2 Comments »

U.S Capitol

Photo: Thuan Vo from Pexels

The federal Build Back Better bill would make a historic investment in helping the country recover from the pandemic – including funding for early education and care that could revolutionize programs for young children.

The first step would be to reverse the damage caused by the pandemic.

As an article from the Center for American Progress explains, “While the relief funds included in the American Rescue Plan Act have limited the fallout from [the pandemic’s] unprecedented challenges, the fact remains that a market-based child care system cannot adequately serve American families.”

The article adds:

“The United States currently spends less than 0.5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on early care and education, ranking near the bottom of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries.

“The effect of this chronic underinvestment is that under current law, very few children access subsidized care—even among those who are eligible. The Administration for Children and Families estimates that in 2017, of the 13.5 million children who were eligible for child care subsidies, only 1 in 7 received them.” (more…)

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In quotes: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation

Posted in Business and economy, Child care, Cost and affordability, National, Pre-kindergarten, Quotes, tagged on December 3, 2021| Leave a Comment »

“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation holds the position that childcare is a two-generation workforce issue because it is essential to supporting the workforce of today and vital to developing our workforce of tomorrow. There is not enough access to affordable, quality childcare which makes it difficult for parents trying to enter, re-enter, or stay in the workforce. In addition, the pandemic exacerbates existing issues in the childcare system and creates an impossible situation for parents, employers, and childcare providers. There are working parents who struggle to balance home childcare and work, children who miss valuable educational opportunities, childcare providers who are fighting to stay open and serve their communities, and employers wondering how and when their employees with children can return to work.

“Successful solutions can only be reached by jointly addressing gaps across affordability, access, flexibility, and quality.”

— “Untapped Potential: Economic Impact of Childcare Breakdowns on U.S. States,” Center for Education and Workforce at The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, November 30, 2021

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Fix child care? Yes we can, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston says

Posted in Child care, Cost and affordability, COVID-19, Federal, Funding, Pre-kindergarten, tagged , on December 2, 2021| Leave a Comment »

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Screenshot: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston website

The title of new article posted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston makes an optimistic point: “The solution is no secret, we can fix child care.”

Child care is broken, the article’s authors Sarah Ann Savage and her colleagues concede, but “child care providers, program directors, and other field experts know how to make high-quality care and early education accessible to all. It’s really no secret: Major public investment and committed political will are what’s needed.”

“The task is big, but it is not unprecedented,” the article adds. “It took both political will and public investment to implement our public K-12 system. And today there are bellwethers suggesting the time may finally be ripe to revisit our relatively minimal public investment in child care.”

This willingness and public investment would help address nagging challenges such as the high cost of early education and care, especially for low-income families.

“Models indicate that eliminating child care expenses for low-income families and capping child care expenses at 7% of income for others would decrease poverty by 40% among New Englanders in families that use child care. Covering or mitigating child care costs would also be a small step toward equity, as the poverty reduction is greatest for Black and Hispanic families.” (more…)

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A recap of the State House hearing on early education and care

Posted in Business and economy, Child care, Cost and affordability, COVID-19, Early educators, Funding, MA Legislature, MA state budget, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Pre-kindergarten, Professional development & preparation, Strategies for Children, tagged , , , on November 30, 2021| Leave a Comment »

 

Last week at the State House, early education was in the spotlight.

The Joint Committee on Education held a hearing and heard testimony on “bills related to Early Education and Care, Kindergarten, and Literacy.”

“During a virtual hearing of the Joint Committee on Education, child-care providers and advocates joined lawmakers in calling for systemic changes to an industry known for its harsh economic imbalance,” the Boston Globe reports. “Massachusetts has some of the highest child-care costs in the nation, yet the state’s child-care workers earn a median salary of $37,000 a year, barely a living wage for someone with children.”

Video of the hearing and a list of the bills is posted here.

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Among the bills that were discussed is the Common Start legislation (H.605, S.362), which “would establish a system of affordable, high-quality early education and child care for all Massachusetts families, over a 5-year timeline,” according to a fact sheet. Strategies for Children serves on the Common Start steering committee, and our executive director Amy O’Leary was one of more than 70 individuals who submitted written testimony in support of the bill. (more…)

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Join next week’s State House hearing

Posted in Child care, Cost and affordability, Federal, Funding, MA Legislature, MA state budget, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, National, Pre-kindergarten, Strategies for Children, tagged , , , on November 18, 2021| 1 Comment »

State House

Photo: Alyssa Haywoode for Strategies for Children

Get ready for next week’s virtual State House hearing, where the Joint Committee on Education will hear testimony on “bills related to Early Education and Care, Kindergarten, and Literacy.”

To watch the hearing, tune in on Tuesday, November 23, 2021, at 11 am.

Want to testify? The deadline for signing up is the day before, Monday, November 22, at noon.

You can also email written testimony to Alice.Peisch@mahouse.gov and Jason.Lewis@masenate.gov. Please include “Education Committee Testimony, [Relevant Bill Number]” in the email’s subject line.

Need to learn more about the bills? Keep reading.

Strategies for Children will provide testimony in support of two bills. One is the Common Start legislation, a bill (H.605, S.362) that “would establish a system of affordable, high-quality early education and child care for all Massachusetts families, over a 5-year timeline,” according to a fact sheet. (more…)

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A webinar: what the federal investment in child care and preschool could mean

Posted in Child care, Cost and affordability, Early educators, Federal, Funding, Health, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, NAEYC, National, Pre-kindergarten, Professional development & preparation, tagged , , , on November 9, 2021| 2 Comments »

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Photo: Artem Podrez from Pexels

The new federal investment in early education and care promises to have a broad impact.

To explore the details, the Alliance for Early Success has shared a new webinar explaining what to expect.

The webinar’s Spanish interpretation is posted here.

“We are very, very excited about this,” Danielle Ewen says in the webinar about the new federal funding. Ewen is a principal at EducationCounsel, an Alliance member and an education consulting firm. “This is a major, major opportunity to change the trajectory of life for children and families and providers.

“When you look at the Build Back Better proposal, the early childhood provisions are the second largest piece. We have never been the second largest piece of a major piece of legislation, ever.”

Build Back Better is still making its way through the legislative process, so it may change somewhat. But here are some key components as they stand now.

Part of the bill addresses income and health care, including: (more…)

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In quotes: San Antonio helps working families pay for child care

Posted in Child care, Cost and affordability, Funding, National, Pre-kindergarten, tagged on November 5, 2021| Leave a Comment »

“Workforce Solutions Alamo is providing a $55 million grant to expand a program easing the financial burden on San Antonio families.”

“ ‘(We are) really helping workers that are in restaurant, entertainment, hotel and those types of industries to have child care,’ said Jessica Dovalina, assistant human services director. ‘A lot of families don’t know this resource is out there.’ ”

“The city’s child care subsidy program could provide 12 months’ worth of free child care to those who qualify. Parents are able to pick any eligible provider throughout San Antonio, which can offer flexible options for those trying to make ends meet.

“ ‘Service-industry jobs can have hours that are not your traditional work hours, and so this really provides an opportunity for them to get support in that area,’ Dovalina said.

“City Council on Thursday approved the Workforce Solutions Alamo grant to bolster the program, which aims to help more than 5,000 families and children in San Antonio and the surrounding area.”

— “New grant alleviates child-care burden for San Antonio’s service industry,” by Troy Kless, KENS 5, November 4, 2021

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