| State budget recap: Best in 10 years for early education and care |
On Thursday, July 26, Governor Charlie Baker signed a $41.8 billion state budget for fiscal year 2019. The governor made no vetoes to early education and care line items. This year's budget is the first in 10 years to surpass the pre-recession high point (FY09) of state funding for early education and care. Highlights include $20 million for the early educator salary rate reserve, $10 million for a new early educator workforce development initiative, $5 million for preschool expansion and more. Visit our website for additional info, and don’t forget to thank your legislators and Governor Baker for this historic investment in high-quality early education. |
| Leading the Way – our new blog series |
“Leading the Way” is our new blog series featuring the next generation of leaders in the field of early education and care. Read about leaders in action across the commonwealth, and send us ideas for who to profile next! |
| Voices from the Field |
Educators, tell your stories. Your experience shines a light on the needs of children and families, and the importance of policy and funding to support educator compensation, training, and leadership development. Our “Voices from the Field” series features first-person accounts from early educators across Massachusetts. Check out three stories posted this summer, by Sheri Rios in Somerville, Stacey Reese on Cape Cod, and Rebecca Ruiz in Springfield. |
 Check out our Eye on Early Education blog for recent stories you may have missed. |
Celebrating the transition to Kindergarten– lessons from New Bedford, August 15 Census 2020 – making sure kids are counted, August 13 Amy O’Leary — the new president of NAEYC’s governing board — publishes her first column, August 9 A new book tells the story of Boston’s preschool program, July 31 Tracking full-day kindergarten trends, July 26 Spotlight on summer learning: resources for parents, educators, and advocates, July 24 (a three-part series) Our Summer 2018 interns, July 12 Wanted: Photography and multimedia intern with a passion for early education, July 30 |
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Aaron Loewenberg @ALoewenberg Aug 15 Massachusetts EEC @MassEarlyEdCare Aug 15 Wonder of Learning @WOLBoston Aug 13 Barr Foundation @BarrFdn Aug 11 Campaign for Grade-Level Reading @readingby3rd Jul 25 Joan Wasser Gish @wassergish Jul 19 Albert Wat @albert_wat Jul 12 |
notes from Amy
While we have much to be thankful for – and please do thank your elected officials – we still have work to do to bring high-quality early education to all young children in Massachusetts. This fall, Strategies for Children will be looking back to look forward. We will host an event to reflect on the 10-year anniversary of An Act Relative to Early Education and Care (enacted in 2008) . We must collectively take stock of how much we have all accomplished to advance the early education sector in this state, and look ahead to envision the system we need in order to best serve all young children and their families. Stay tuned for event details. I hope you enjoy these last days of summer. Rest, reflect, re-engerize. See you in the fall!
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Your advocacy has paid off! The fiscal year 2019 state budget is the best in 10 years for early education and care, and the first budget in 10 years to surpass pre-recession funding levels. Funds this year will continue to raise (chronically low) salaries in the early education and care field, create a new workforce development initiative, and begin to expand preschool. 
