The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
You may have seen the headlines: Arizona to receive nearly $1 billion from the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to help rebuild and expand our child care and early childhood education system.
Let’s bask in that for a moment: ONE. BILLION. DOLLARS. To be spent helping children and families.
Ah, you can feel the “but” coming, can’t you? Let’s turn the “but” to an “and.”
Arizona will receive almost $1 billion dollars and we still must make local investments to help low-income families who want their children to attend high-quality preschools.
More good news: Local investors are lining up.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors has earmarked $10 million for scholarships to send kids in low-income families to high-quality preschools. The city of Tucson has pledged $1 million in federal COVID relief funding to help the effort. The city of South Tucson is providing assistance.
Other municipalities, nonprofits, business organizations and local employers are committing dollars and in-kind support.
Public school districts are calculating how they can increase the capacity of their early education programs, which involves more than simply filling an empty classroom with smaller chairs.
This ball is rolling.
Why is this such a big deal? Because research has shown — and other communities’ experiences bear this out — that high-quality early childhood education is the single most effective investment we can make to expand economic development, strengthen academics, graduation and college-going rates, help kids with social development, help keep them out of the criminal-justice system and be less reliant on public assistance programs as adults. The benefits sustain into the next generation.
I’ve written before about The Preschool Promise, a group of children’s advocates, business leaders, nonprofits and educators. I’m part of the group, and we’ve been meeting regularly for two years, building support and momentum for making high-quality pre-K affordable and accessible to low-income families who want it.
Arizona has also received $248 million for COVID relief, and that’s being used, in part, to increase the per-child amount DES gives to child care providers to cover at least some tuition costs so lower-income families can pay less. That subsidy is nowhere near the full cost of a high-quality preschool program.
With all this money coming Arizona’s way, why do we still need local investment?
These federal dollars are a lifeline, not a steady new source of money. It will jump-start our efforts, but it doesn’t mean we can abandon our duty to invest in our children and our community.
Think of it this way: When a tree crashes into your roof and the rain pours in, you must spend to repair and rebuild — but that expenditure doesn’t mean you can stop paying your electric bill to keep the lights on.
The near-billion dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act is desperately needed to help child care providers who were forced out of business — and those who kept their doors open while operating at a financial loss — during the pandemic.
We don’t yet know for sure how many local providers have closed in the past year, but those in the field report it’s a significant percentage. Nationally, 1 in 6 jobs in the childcare sector have been lost since the pandemic began, according to the Center for Law and Social Policy.
The Arizona Early Childhood Alliance’s alignment committee is making recommendations to the Arizona Department of Economic Security on how best to spend the federal money, which can be used to cover rent, payroll, facility maintenance and upgrades, personal protective equipment and other pandemic-related costs.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey will make the final decision. He’d be wise to listen to the experts, because any successful economic rebound depends significantly on the availability, accessibility and affordability of high-quality child care.
Employers know the connection between employment, economic development and high-quality preschool — that’s why they’re joining this movement in Pima County.
Local elected officials understand the connection between high-quality preschool and positive long-term educational and social outcomes — that’s why they’re joining this movement.
Nonprofits and philanthropic donors see the connection between high-quality preschool and a better quality of life for our community — that’s why they’re joining this movement.
I invite you to join this movement, too.
