First Lady: Universal pre-k faces long road
State House News, January 30, 2007

With 14 pre-schoolers fidgeting on the Grand Staircase behind them, First Lady Diane Patrick, lawmakers, and early education supporters said Tuesday the Legislature and Executive Branch will take another swing at upgrading universal pre-kindergarten policies.

“It’s a long road, but we all know, I know what you know, and that is that we have to start at the very beginning because the impact of a child’s beginning, whether it’s strong or poor, really shapes that person’s young adulthood,” Patrick said after acknowledging that the program may not be fully implemented “in the first four years of my husband’s governorship or even second.”

Patrick, who has a degree in early childhood education from Queens College, but last led a classroom 30 years ago, said her “first love” was being an early childhood educator. Patrick is a labor and employment lawyer at Boston law firm Ropes and Gray.

The Early Education for All campaign is recommending $600 million over five years for the program, starting with $100 million for the fiscal 2008 budget. The list also includes line items for grants and professional development for early care providers, carrying several million-dollar increases.

“I want to be hopeful, but I’m not such a Pollyanna” to see that it may be a hard sell given the grim budget forecasts, Rep. Patricia Haddad (D-Somerset), co-chair of the Legislature’s Committee on Education, said.

“If we all agree that this is an economic development tool, if we all agree the real natural resource is the intellect, we’re investing in what we consider our major natural reserve,” she said.

Top lawmakers said a bill establishing a universal pre-kindergarten infrastructure will likely be the first bill heard by the end of February and reported out of the commitee.

The bill, which has the support of Gov. Deval Patrick and the state Department of Early Education, is largely a refile of the bill vetoed by Gov. Mitt Romney last August. Romney vetoed the bill because he said it may open taxpayers up to unaffordable costs.

“He said throughout the two years he was campaigning that he’s determined to make sure that every child in the Commonwealth has the same opportunity that he had . . . because he too appreciates the impact, positive or negative, that an early start has,” Patrick said of her husband.

The bill establishes the program and directs the department to set regulations establishing sliding scale fees and subsidies for parents, according to lawmakers.

“That’s something the department is going to have to define,” Sen. Robert Antonioni (D-Leominster), committee co-chair, said, when asked about affordability concerns given the problems plaguing the health care reform effort.

Massachusetts is the fourth least affordable state in the nation for early education, with year-round services currently costing an average of $10,000, said Margaret Blood, Early Education for All campaign director. “That’s more than tuition to UMass Amherst,” she said.

The sliding scale of rates is due in part to the variance in what Massachusetts parents want, early education advocates said.

According to a draft of a survey of 600 families commissioned by the Early Education for All campaign, 53 percent of parents prefer 5 or more hours a day of universal pre-kindergarten, with 36 percent preferring four hours or fewer.

Fifty-four percent prefer five days a week to 43 percent preferring three days or fewer. Forty-nine percent want the program year-round and 46 percent want it just for the school year.

Haddad said the bill, still in draft form, would also add four gubernatorial appointments to the current nine-member Board of Early Education.

The bill would ensure that only one member can be employed by a state agency and cannot serve as the chairperson, and create a 38-member state advisory council featuring members from the early education field who would meet quarterly.

The bill would also require the board to report to the committee by March 30 on the way the board proposes to “secure a set of quality enhancements currently or potentially offered under the existing system.”

“It’s very important for Massachusetts employers to attract and hire qualified workers,” said Richard Lord, president of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts. “And I believe, and all of us believe, an important component is a high quality pre-school education.”