“When people try to increase the quantity of ‘childcare’ but don’t take seriously the opportunities that will be missed if you ignore quality, children still arrive in kindergarten unprepared to learn and without the social skills to take advantage of their new classrooms.â€
Sterling Speirn, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Washington Post online, September 20, 2011
Our situation in Massachusetts seems to be the opposite of this quote. While we are fortunate to be moving ahead and devoting resources to program quality and workforce development, the decrease in child care subsidy is leading to fewer children served. This is compounded by the loss of enrollment for middle class children in preschool due to parental unemployment or underemployment. Even among those chidlren that do attend preschool, our “at risk” child population suffers from turnover, absenteeism and lack of continuity of care. The “dosage” of quality child care needs to attain a significant, level to produce the learning and development results we hope to see in children. We need to rebalance on the quality vs. subsidy questions and collect data to see the amount of services children must have at a minimum to result in a positive, sustainable impact.