Early education and care can provide lifelong benefits for young children, and it also helps support the day-to-day needs of working parents.
Two new MassBudget reports examine the positive impact early education and care can have, along with the funding cuts that have affected these programs. The first paper, "Declines in Spending on Early Education and Care in Massachusetts," tracks trends in funding since welfare reform in the mid-1990s and finds that:
The second paper, "Economic Gains from Early Education and Care" is authored by PERI economist and UMass professor Arthur MacEwan. It documents the large economic benefits of high quality early education and care. This includes both the contribution of parents who could not work without the support of reliable child care and also the long-term gains from kids whose life prospects are improved by early education. As MacEwan puts it: