By Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston Team
Harvard Kennedy School Professor Jeffrey Liebman, Director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston and the Taubman Center for State and Local Government, released a new report, “An Economic Analysis of the Childcare and Early Education Market in Massachusetts,” and presented the results of a new survey of Massachusetts parents about their childcare and early education preferences.
His report shows that, despite overwhelming evidence that 1) early childhood development affects later outcomes, and 2) achievement gaps are already substantial by age 5, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts spends one-fifth the amount per child on early education as it does on K-12 schooling. But, due to market failures, without substantial public financing, the market will provide too little early education, and the slots that exist will, on average, be lower than optimal quality.
52 percent of 0-4 year olds in Massachusetts are enrolled in formal early education or care. 80 percent of families not currently using formal care would use it if they could afford it, and many of those currently using care would use more hours if they could afford to do so.
If Massachusetts wants to make high quality care available to all families, it would need to take four steps:
- Increase early educator wages in order to stabilize the workforce, increase quality, and enable recruitment of the staff necessary to expand the number of slots;
- Make further investments in quality by funding more training and developing credentialing paths;
- Provide funding for capital expenses and other start-up costs so that more providers will increase the number of slots they offer;
- Expand the number of demand-side income-based subsidies, timed so that the additional subsidies become available as new capacity comes online.
Following the research presentation, Professor Liebman was joined by state policymakers and experts for a discussion on early education policy in Massachusetts.
