Who defines "efficiency" in early childhood education?
The concept of efficiency is being weaponized by those in power to politically target and defund public services at the federal level. At the same time, many states are using the mantle of efficiency to roll back adult-to-child ratios, lower minimum age requirements for staff, and increase maximum group sizes instead of investing in evidence-based policies that bring down costs and increase availability for families.
I reject the idea that efficiency should be the primary goal of early childhood education. Much of what looks like inefficiency to those who are purely looking at the numbers creates a more enriching environment for children to learn and grow.
However, I believe in the importance of efficient systems. Policy shaped by those who seek to create the appearance of efficiency by putting up barriers is the single biggest source of inefficiencies in our child care and early learning system. These barriers for families and programs are being ignored – or added to! – in favor of non-solutions that will endanger children and diminish their early childhood education.
In my own brief experience as a toddler teacher in a program that served upper-income families, I observed many supposed inefficiencies that these families viewed as expectations for their children. Of course, these expectations of upper-income families are a luxury rarely afforded to children in middle or low-income families.
Here’s what this might look like in practice:
Flexibility to operate under maximum group size or have an extra adult in the room to support children and provide more opportunities for interaction.
Contracting with music, math, or physical education specialists.
Purchasing extra servings of food and milk to ensure children eat until they are full and can spill or make mistakes when learning to serve themselves.
Paid sick days, personal time, and vacations to support physical and mental health and counter burnout.
Reliably being able to purchase and refresh your program with high quality furniture, toys, outdoor play materials, and art supplies.
Large spaces with plenty of room for children to play together or alone, in different types of activities simultaneously.
Contracts that pay programs to have temporarily empty slots so that they can welcome new families throughout the year.
On the other hand, our system is held back by inefficiencies that make the lives of parents and child care educators harder. Truly efficient legislation would promote access and affordability for families, reduce burdens for child care programs, and still retain high quality, safe experiences for children. Yet for some reason, these burdens are rarely taken seriously by elected leaders in discussions with narrow conceptions of efficiency.
Some examples of policy and regulatory changes that would tackle inefficiency head-on might include:
Universal child care entitlement
Too many families cannot access care because of means testing, work and immigration requirements, paperwork burdens, long processing times, and wait lists. An amply-funded system would allow families to start receiving the care they need without any application requirements beyond expressing an interest in enrolling.
Cost of care funding model
Market rate surveys are a massive undertaking that do not reflect the reality of providing high quality care. They create a self-perpetuating cycle wherein programs that serve low-income families are paid less than what is needed to operate. In a tiered quality reimbursement system, this effect is even more dramatic.
Streamlined, modernized public data systems
Child care programs should not have to enter data across three or more platforms for each child depending on how many sources fund that child’s slot.
Data about realtime capacity and aggregate workforce information should not be proprietary, but open and available to support informed decision making.
Adaptive licensing requirements
Family child care providers who move to new housing should be provided an adapted license renewal process so they can continue caring for children with minimal down time. This common sense approach should focus on the safety compliance of the new space when personnel and other requirements have already been verified in the active license period of their existing program.
Staffed family child care networks
Large for-profit centers use their scale to hire administrative staff to do what family child care programs are expected to do on their own. The government should invest in supporting business and compliance needs so family child care providers can focus on the work of caring for and educating children. In my view this does not mean just business education, but rather developing trusting, close relationships to take on administrative tasks as much as feasible for programs that want the support.
In a time of destruction in the name of efficiency, when a government that does the right thing can feel completely out of reach, I have chosen to orient Child Care Stories around an abundant, thriving vision of universal child care because I believe every child deserves “inefficiencies” like the ones received by children whose families can afford well-funded programs.