Commission 1.2 - Innovative financing strategies for ECCE
Innovative Financing Strategies for ECCE –
An Investment Framework for Early Childhood
Systems Building
Charles Bruner
Child and Family Policy Center
World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education
27-29 September 2010
Moscow, Russian Federation
Building the Wealth of Nations:
UNESCO World Conference on
Early Childhood Care and Education
Commission 1.2 Costs and Finance:
Innovative Financing Strategies for ECCE
An Investment Framework for
Early Childhood Systems Building
Charles Bruner, Ph.D., Director
Child & Family Policy Center
Presentation Outline
1. The Basics: Public Sector’s Stake and Financing
Role in ECCE
2. Current Investment Levels and Future Investment
Needs
3. Innovative Financing Approaches
4. The Particular Need for Place-Based Approaches,
Health Equity, and Social Inclusion
5. Recommendations
The Basics: The Public Sector’s Stake
• Healthy child development, school readiness, and
future educational success
– High quality early childhood programs needed to ensure healthy
development, school readiness, and acquisition of skills needed
for 21st century workforce
• Present workforce productivity
– Working parents productivity and workforce availability
dependent upon substitute care for young children
– Fundamental mismatch between what working parents can afford
to pay for their young children’s early care and what is required to
ensure healthy development in early care programs
• Early childhood workforce as economic sector
– Low compensation and support for early childhood service
providers jeopardize their ability to raise their own children and
be sources of social capital in their neighborhoods and
communities.
Many Happy Returns: Three Economic Models that Make the Case for School Readiness
http://www.finebynine.org/uploaded/file/SECPTAN_MHR_final.pdf
Brain Development and Current Public
Investments in Education and
Development — U.S.
For every dollar invested in
the education and development
of school-aged children (6-18)… only
6 cents is invested in infants/toddlers
(0-2) and 25 cents is invested in preschoolers (3-5).
Early Learning Left Out: Building an Early Learning Childhood System to Secure America’s Future, 3rd Edition
www.voices.org
Exemplary Programs
and Cost Effectiveness
• Intensive early childhood services (Early Head Start,
Abecedarian) with family support
• High quality preschool (Perry Preschool, Chicago ParentChild Centers, NIEER reports)
• Evidenced-based home visiting and family support
programs for first-time mothers (Nurse Family Partnerships,
Healthy Families America, Parents as First Teachers)
• Developmental health and nutrition services (Help Me
Grow; Child Health Improvement Partnerships; Reach Out
and Read; Women, Infant and Children program)
A Stitch in Time: Calculating the Costs of School Unreadiness
http://76.12.61.196/publications/stitchintime.pdf
Healthy Child Storybook
http://www.cfpciowa.org/uploaded/HealthyChildStoryBookMay62010.pdf
Current Public Investments and
Investment Gap in U.S.
$30 billion invested
$80-$120 billion gap
As 19th Century leaders established
compulsory elementary and secondary
education, and 20th Century leaders
established modern post-secondary
education system, 21st Century leaders must
establish early childhood healthy
development and education system.
Federal Funding & Young Children: Directions, Opportunities, and Challenges
www.buildinitiative.org/files/Federal%20Funding.pdf
Innovative Financing Approaches
• No Alternative to Public Investment
(philanthropy/NGOs only can fill small gap)
• “Cost of Doing Nothing” Projections Need to
Be Taken Seriously
• This May Require a Bonding/Reinvestment
Approach
• Building Political Will a Key (within nations
and internationally)
Place-Based Investments –
Disparities by Neighborhood in the U.S.
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
Single Parents
Poor Families with Children
25+ No HS Completion
25+ BA or Higher
HoH on Public Assistance
HoH with Wage Income
HoH with Savings, Dividend Income
Owner-Occupied Housing
18+ Limited English
16-19 not School/Work
No
Vulnerability
Factors
20%
7%
13%
27%
5%
81%
42%
71%
2%
3%
Six or More
Vulnerability
Factors
53%
41%
48%
7%
25%
69%
11%
29%
18%
15%
Note: 1.7% of all White Non-Hispanics, but 20.3% of Blacks, and 25.3% of Hispanics
live in census tracts with six or more vulnerability factors. 83% of residents in tracts
with no vulnerability factors are White, Non-Hispanics; 83% of residents in tracts with
six or more vulnerability factors are of color.
Village Building and School Readiness: Closing Opportunity Gaps in a Diverse Society
http://www.finebynine.org/uploaded/file/VBSR.pdf
Place-Based Investments –
Challenges and Opportunities
• Linking individual services within community
building efforts
• Creating human, social, and economic
capital through investing in indigenous
development
• Synergy in joint learning across developing
and developed world
Family-Centred Services and Young Child Development in Vulnerable Families. Coalition on Children
Affected By AIDS 2009 Nairobi Conference. www.ccaba.org/resources_nairobi.html
Recommendations
• Remain focused on public role
• Promote place-based/group-based approaches and
socially excluded populations in affluent countries
• Emphasize importance of closing gaps in results //
not just achieving high rates of return
• Promote international investments in countries
which do not have the capacity to provide sufficient
investments themselves
• Build public awareness of critical element for future
world prosperity
Contact Information
Charles Bruner, Ph.D.
Director
Child & Family Policy Center
505 5th Avenue, Suite 404
Des Moines, IA 50309
[email protected]
SECPTAN website: www.finebynine.org
CFPC website: www.cfpciowa.org
BUILD website: www.buildinitiative.org