Overview

How we fund early learning programs is the key to ensuring fair and equitable access for children and their families to quality care and learning services.

Programs that provide similar services to similar children and families receive vastly different funding depending on whether they’re considered child-care, preschool, or Head Start. This leads to uneven quality in communities and creates access deserts.

Simply pouring more money into the existing system does not necessarily result in increased access to early learning programs, particularly for children, families, and communities with greatest needs. CELFE “fellows the money” to examine exactly how public funding systems impact access to and participation in early learning, and how they can be improved.  That exercise involves understanding what is meant by funding equity, which necessitates a grasp of what is considered adequate funding. Only then can agency and program staff redesign systems with those goals in mind, and develop corresponding accountability metrics and implementation plans.