Universal preschool effort gains ground
This year promises to be a crucial one for a six-year-old business-backed campaign to provide all three- and four-year-olds in Massachusetts with access to state-funded preschool by 2012.
Business executives involved in the effort, as well as campaign executives, hope lawmakers will pass a bill laying the framework for so-called "universal preschool" by July, says Early Education for All Campaign Director Margaret Blood. But the EEA effort still faces some formidable challenges, including how to fund the billion-dollar-a-year program and how to allay the concerns of independent day care providers.House Bill 1724, which was favorably reported out of the Legislative Joint Committee on Education last October, is now before the House Ways and Means Committee. Blood says the measure.
But Blood admits there is still much work to be done in establishing the new state department, overseeing preschool standards and providing resources to help preschool teachers improve their education level. But, she says, the biggest hurdle to passing H-1724 is the competing priorities for lawmakers in the months ahead, including health-care and energy issues.
Since the bill does not having funding attached to it, Blood notes, the funding will be debated separately. But Blood and other EEA backers say the effort has made good progress in 2005 and expects to continue the momentum this year.
Mara Aspinall, EEA co-chair and president of Westboro-based Genzyme Genetics, says she thinks EEA had "a tremendously exciting year," as evidenced by several changes in the state’s approach to early education. A key first step, Aspinall says, was the state’s total restructuring of its resources for day care and early education under the newly created Department of Early Education and Care last July. A second milestone is lawmakers’ creation of a pilot scholarship program providing $1 million in the fiscal 2007 budget for preschool teachers to further their education.
"Legislators have really shown their commitment to quality early education," says Aspinall, whose company is one of several major corporations backing the EEA campaign. She and fellow business leaders say providing comprehensive preschool education is critical to keeping the state competitive.
Aspinall says the biggest achievement by the EEA over the past year has been in "changing peoples’ thinking about education" and the importance of pre-kindergarten programs. While universal preschool is still some years away, Aspinall says, the broad EEA coalition will aggressively work to pass H-1724. The biggest challenge, Aspinall agrees, will be to identify a predictable revenue source to fund the program.
While Gov. Mitt Romney has not been a supporter of universal preschool, Blood notes that all three candidates for governor are responsive to the idea.
Meanwhile, independent day care providers, like Michael Casey of the Shrewsbury Children’s Center are waiting to see what the state’s new focus on preschool programs will mean to their businesses. Casey expresses relief that the new state department does not intend to expand public-school-based preschool programs but would, instead, use existing independent providers.
He says he’s still concerned that increased state education standards for preschool teachers will create teacher shortages and higher teacher turnover for independent facilities. Casey worries that higher salaries at public schools will turn independent day care programs into stepping stones for preschool teachers, and that turnover will worsen.
Overall, Casey says, he’s waiting to see what evolves in the EEA effort and that independent providers do feel that the new department is listening to their concerns.
Micky Baca can be reached at mbaca@wbjournal.com
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