Research suggests that high quality early education can make significant contributions to the Education Program’s overarching goal for children from low-income families and children of color to reach their full potential by the year 2044, the year when the US becomes majority-minority.
In order to deliver high-quality early childhood education (ECE) programs at scale, there must be equitably financed, coherent state ECE systems that deliver services efficiently and effectively to the families that need them the most. These systems must also include mechanisms to ensure that early childhood educators are well-prepared and appropriately compensated.
The long-term goals of the Governance and Financing major initiatives are to ensure that state-level early childhood education (ECE) systems are coherent, functional, equitable, and financed robustly. The importance of these two interrelated major initiatives stems from increasing recognition among policymakers and researchers that fragmented and under-resourced systems hinder equitable access to high-quality ECE programs and services.