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A Win for Early Education in Massachusetts

A Win for Early Education in Massachusetts

High-quality early education is critical to the well-being and future success of children, but high costs keep it out of reach for too many families. A recent report found that the average annual cost for full-day child care is $17,000 for infants and $13,000 for four-year-old children in Massachusetts, making ours one of the most expensive states in the country for parents. Particularly in Boston, this expense, coupled with the skyrocketing housing prices, makes it nearly impossible for residents to give their children the best opportunities possible for future success. This is why we were thrilled to learn that Governor Baker has proposed $28 million in funding towards child care for low-income families, the largest rate hike for subsidized early education and care programs in 10 years. As our CEO, Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, wrote in her recent letter to the editor in The Boston Globe, “early education is crucial to ensuring that low-income minority children have a strong developmental foundation that will provide them the opportunity to have bright futures.” For IBA, this increased funding would be key to funding IBA’s Bilingual Preschool. Ranked one of the Massachusetts Top 21 School Readiness Programs, our program focuses on fostering critical developmental skills, including language, social and emotional development, and core fundamental values that include inclusion, adaptability, and independence. Our curriculum also teaches children the value of multicultural environments. We’re proud to see our kids go on to be valuable members of the community, with greater chances to graduate from high school and college. State funding for early education is more important than ever. As mentioned in our recent blog post, proposed federal cuts could defund the U.S. Education Department by $9.2 billion to public education. Federal funding like this has greatly impacted IBA by enabling us to help hundreds of parents find an affordable, culturally rich and valuable program for their children’s early education, so a significant increase in funding at the state level will allow us to continue impacting local families’ lives. For more information on how you can support IBA, please visit our page: /donate/...