At its December 8 meeting, the Massachusetts Board of Early Education and Care heard a full hour of testimony from early educators and administrators from across the commonwealth, all with the same message: the early childhood workforce has reached a crisis point. Educators shared their personal stories about their passion, commitment to continuous learning and to the important work they do each day. They also highlighted the struggles they face staying in a field that is severely underpaid and undervalued.

The median early educator salary—between $22,501 and $25,000—is often lower than one would earn working full time in the fast food industry, as some educators attested to the Board, and far short of a livable wage in Massachusetts.

Recent research has shown that 37% of Massachusetts early educators receive some form of public assistance, indicating that there is a substantial public cost for inadequate workforce compensation.

The testimony had an impact. The EEC Board revised their original recommendation and voted to increase rates and quality support funding in its aspirational FY17 budget proposal to the Baker Administration.

While wages for the early education workforce remain low, the cost of child care to families remains high. Child Care Aware reports that the average annual cost of care for two children (an Infant and a 4-year-old) totals $29,843 in Massachusetts.

“For many, the high cost of child care is one of the initial shocks of becoming a parent,” the report says. And sadly, the high cost of many child care programs does not guarantee high quality.

“Child care is an important part of the fabric of the country and a major support for parents and children,” Joan Lombardi, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress says in the report. “We need a new financing strategy that will significantly increase resources and provide a third party payment system to take the burden off hard pressed families and to allow improved compensation for those who care for our children.” Read more.

In Massachusetts, local communities are leading the way on early education, collaborating across programs, sectors and funding streams to build high-quality early childhood systems. Emerging models show great promise for sustainable and effective local work, supporting young children and preparing them for success in school.

New Bedford is one such community. Supported by EEC’s federally funded Birth–Grade Three alignment partnership grant, New Bedford’s early childhood practitioners have expanded kindergarten readiness programming, implemented joint professional development in early literacy and social-emotional learning, and begun designing a governance model to institutionalize and sustain city-wide collaboration in early childhood.

Cambridge and Holyoke are also expanding early education services and systems, and they are not alone. More than a dozen communities in Massachusetts are engaging in local B-5 or B-8 system-building efforts, often with the aid of state or federal planning grants.