Advocates push universal, publicly funded early education - Commonwealth Magazine
By Shira Schoenberg
A coalition of early education advocates will introduce an ambitious proposal Tuesday to completely overhaul the state’s early education system. The legislation would provide universal, affordable early education in Massachusetts, turning childcare from a system that is now largely private pay to one that is primarily publicly funded.
The plan would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and the coalition has not yet proposed how to pay for it. At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has shed a spotlight on the importance of childcare to the economy –– and the fragility of the existing childcare system – the plan, while unlikely to pass, could provide a foundation for broader discussions about how to make childcare more accessible. It is being introduced at the same time as new powerful coalitions – a business organization and a philanthropic group –– are beginning to focus intensely on how to improve early education.
“The pandemic really laid bare just how critical a role childcare plays in supporting family economic opportunity and financial security,” said Lauren Kennedy, co-founder of Neighborhood Villages, which advocates for childcare policy reform and helped craft the bill. “You have an entire generation of parents sitting in front of their computers with children climbing the walls behind them…who are invested in seeing movement happen on fixing a very broken childcare market.”
The universal early ed bill is being pushed by the Common Start Coalition, a statewide partnership of provider organizations, parents, early educators, and advocates founded in 2018. Lead organizations include the Massachusetts Association of Early Education and Care, organizing groups like the Coalition for Social Justice and Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts, childcare workers union SEIU Local 509, and other child and parent advocacy groups. The Common Start Coalition has gotten funding from the national Early Childhood Funders Collaborative, Commonwealth Children’s Fund, and Family Values @ Work.
The legislation would make early education and childcare universal, from birth through age five, through an infusion of money to providers and families. It would be phased in over five years.