Report Release! BUILDING CALIFORNIA’S FUTURE: Tackling the Facilities Challenge for Our Youngest Learners

Today we’re releasing a new policy report which we hope will both support and help inform how the Governor looks to invest in ECE facilities. 

Early learning environments are essential for promoting healthy child development. Vibrant colors, sunlight, and natural outdoor environments for playing and exploring are all critical to contributing to a child’s brain function and physical development. However, the majority of families and children in California do not have access to high-quality early learning environments, due to lack of early care and education (ECE) facilities in their neighborhood. Lack of access is particularly acute for low-income communities of color.

Presently, California’s ECE system and infrastructure reflect a California of decades past. Family working trends show that in the 1970s, about 30 percent of mothers with children under age three entered the workforce. Nationally, we now see that close to 60 percent of mothers with children under three enter the workforce. Families need two incomes to meet the demands of rising housing costs and increased costs of living. Unfortunately, there has not been equivalent growth in ECE services, leaving many families in a difficult position. Despite changes in working trends, investments in the California publicly-funded ECE system are just barely at pre-recession funding levels.

Recognizing this, the Golden State’s new gubernatorial administration and legislators have committed more resources to increase the availability of high-quality ECE for California’s children. There is much discussion across the state about how best to achieve this goal. Missing from many of these discussions, however, is an analysis of whether the state has sufficient physical facilities to house the babies, toddlers, and preschoolers it aims to serve.

Learn more by downloading the full report, here.