Making Early Childhood Education the Right of Every Child
How should a mid-sized foundation position its initiatives in this age of austerity and how can one county and community foundation influence state-level decisions? These are questions that the Erie Community Foundation asked when it planned an early childhood education initiative more than a year ago, knowing that it would not be able to increase slots through increased state subsidies.
In December 2011 the foundation, along with other community partners, launched Erie’s Future Fund, a scholarship program designed to close the education gap for more than 2,500 low-income 3 and 4-year-olds in Erie County, Penn., who are not enrolled in a quality, early childhood experience. This initiative weaves numerous local efforts along with four state-supported programs related to early childhood education. In addition to ECF and United Way funding, the foundation is raising money for the scholarships through ELIC business leaders’ outreach to their peers to apply for the Pre-K Tax Credit or other donations.
We know a “quality” experience prepares 95 percent of low-income children to enter school kindergarten-ready. Our LEARN coordinating entity is administering the program, providing the outreach to families and providers and aligning the efforts of the business leaders. Not only could this initiative increase the number of kids in quality early education, but we hope it will entice additional providers to increase their quality rating so they can access the scholarship money. During the launch of this program, we educated elected officials about how all of these programs are working together and are needed to make this entire community effort a success.
When we launched, we were aware that current childcare subsidies would definitely not increase and were likely to be cut over the coming years. We also knew we had a governor and legislative body inclined to increase tax incentive programs for businesses. We wanted to position our initiative so that, regardless of what happened at the state level, we had a system in place locally to maintain or increase our participation numbers. We did not anticipate a dismantling of the rating and assessment system that other statewide foundations have worked over a decade to create. The current state senate budget proposal rips $8.7 million from the Keystone Stars program. This reduction would also cut all the professional development staff at Keystone Stars and the LEARN grants and not only reduce the coordination ability of our provider, but the number of programs across the county that can maintain or increase their quality standards—thus providing fewer places families can apply their scholarships.
To realize its initiatives, the foundation is embarking on an another advocacy campaign with our state elected officials, addressing how these cuts will impact an early childhood education effort that is receiving national attention for engaging business leadership and government partnerships. That is why we are attending the Council on Foundations Center for Community Foundation Excellence: Public Policy for Community Foundations seminar in Jackson, Miss., June 11–12. We need to understand how we integrate public policy as one of the tools in our toolkit along with grant making, leveraging, convening, and leadership so that our initiatives successfully impact our community. With the skills developed at the seminar, we hope to sustain a program that is fundamental in preparing our community’s children for educational success.
Anne Sekula is vice president of programs at the Erie Community Foundation.
