March 28, 2024

The Honorable Governor Maura Healey
The Honorable Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll

CEO Action for Racial Equity (“CEOARE”) is writing to thank you for your action expanding access to early education providers through the Massachusetts (MA) Repay program under the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. We respectfully request that your administration, through its authority, consider incorporating additional principles which may advance racial equity and excellence in early childhood education, described below.  

We know that some educators have left the Early Childhood Education field due to low wages. In MA, Early Education and Care (EEC) teachers are paid about $31,000 a year, whereas kindergarten teachers in MA public schools are paid about $78,000 per year.¹ This places a burden on EEC teachers, with advanced degrees, when it comes time to repay their student loans. We believe that the inclusion of EEC teachers in the MA Repay Program can help alleviate this burden.

In addition to your administration’s expansion of the MA Repay Program to include EEC teachers, we urge you to incorporate as part of your education agenda the following provisions that could positively impact racial equity:

• Broaden early education and care student loan forgiveness eligibility to include early childhood educators in underserved communities. Should the Board of Early Education and Care create a loan forgiveness program, the Board should give preference to “applicants identified as providers who have displayed proven commitment to early childhood education and who work in communities predominantly serving children and families with high needs or areas with a shortage of early education and care slots.”² Prioritizing student loan forgiveness for early childhood educators that help underserved communities may encourage more EEC professionals to establish and work in child care centers that serve high-needs children as well as in child care deserts.
• Foster C3 grant funding and fairness by prioritizing EEC providers that serve disproportionately impacted communities: Grant funding is necessary to keep child care providers open across the Commonwealth. In Massachusetts, since March 2020, over 1,359 child care programs closed representing 17 percent of programs and 23,395 slots for children.³ Prioritizing approved EEC provider applicants that assist disproportionately impacted communities to early education and care in the Commonwealth would expand access to childcare for all students.
• Improve data collection on EEC spending to target funding: Building a plan for data-informed decision-making around the allocation of funds has the potential to increase equity in MA EEC. Specifically, increased child-level data within the C3 grant program and/or state funded centers could permit more accurate targeting of equity-focused adjustments. The C3 grant application currently collects racial/ethnic data at the provider level, but a gap still exists as it relates to child-level data. This could be the primary metric to inform if we are reaching Black children and can be included in the scope of an executive position to oversee societal racial equity in MA EEC.

Incorporate cultural competency and implicit bias training into Early Education Essentials Curriculum: To receive operational grant funding from the Department of EEC, Early Education and Care providers should complete the mandatory Early Education Essentials Curriculum training. The Department of EEC should incorporate implicit bias and cultural competency training into the current curriculum. Adding implicit bias and cultural competency training as a mandatory part of the curriculum may lead to increased educational equity for underserved children as it will provide teachers with a greater understanding of the cultural nuances and backgrounds of their students. More inclusive environments benefit all children and allow Black children to be in  a better position to succeed. Again, we applaud the Healey-Driscoll Administration’s continued engagement on issues related to racial equity. As a business coalition focused on racial equity, we look forward to working with you on greater equity for the people of Massachusetts.

Sincerely,
CEOARE Fellowship

Citations

¹ “Key Findings from Statewide Survey of MA Voters.” Www.BeaconResearch.com. Beacon Research, December 18, 2020. Beacon Research. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ed7bd5e798a4a61dd9ac980/t/601d7cceeadfc50c31251ecf/1612545230408/Common+Start+Coalition+Statewide+Survey-Key+Findings.pdf.

² Gould, E., Whitebook, M., Mokhiber, Z., & Austin, L. (2020). “Financing Early Educator Quality: A Values-Based Budget for Every State.” A series of state-by-state reports produced by the Economic Policy Institute and University of California Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. Retrieved from https://cscce.berkeley.edu/workforce-index-2020/states/massachusetts/.

³ Schoenberg, Shira. “Fixing Early ED System Could Cost $1.5 Billion a Year .” Commonwealth Magazine, March 14, 2022. https://commonwealthmagazine.org/economy/fixing-early-ed-system-could-cost-1-5-billion-a-year/.