Host Hallie Claflin: “So how can we make sense of how and why [preschool expansion] varies so much from city to city and district to district?”

Amy O’Leary: “I think part of that is understanding supply and demand. We know that often it’s hard to see the early education and care community… where are the providers? When you think about schools, you know where a school building is, there might be three family child care providers on your way to that [school], but you just you don’t see them.”

“There are [also] geographical differences. In Western Mass, there might be a public school district, more family child providers, and not as many centers. In some of our larger cities, we have more centers. So that’s why I think you have to look at the local level.”

“What we have heard back from districts is, right now that they don’t have enough space to serve all the children. This has been consistent over the past 25 years.”

“We need to think about the funding across the board. How do we make all those [providers] accessible and equally funded? So that’s why I know the commissioner talks about a setting and not a program.”

Amy Kershaw: “We really believe early childhood education is an experience, not a setting. And some of the variation is going to be critical, because you have to respond to the individual needs of a community.”

“So we want there to be local planning. We want to work with a local community landscape of early education and care programs. But we know that we want the experience, the curriculum, the training and professional development for the teachers and the educators to be consistent, for the experience the kids are having before they enter school to be consistent in preparing them for what that local school district is expecting them to be able to do and know by the time they enter kindergarten.”

— Codcast: “How ‘universal’ is universal pre-K?,” by CommonWealth Beacon staff, March 1, 2026