- Karen Babbs Hollett and Erica Frankenberg
- January 2024
- Focus-on-Poverty-392c
- Link to Focus-on-Poverty-39-2c (PDF)
- Link to 39-2-fop-classroom-supplement (PDF)
Karen Babbs Hollett and Erica Frankenberg examine how Black and Latinx children are much less likely than White children to participate in high-quality ECE programming. This disparity replicates and amplifies chronic racial disparities found elsewhere in the United States. The authors offer several plausible policy alternatives to the predominant mechanism of tiered reimbursements for ECE.
Takeaways
- High-quality early care and education (ECE) programs are associated with positive academic and social outcomes for participating children.
- Black and Latinx children are much less likely than White children to participate in high-quality ECE programming, replicating and amplifying systemic racial disparities.
- Funding policies may contribute to differential access to high-quality ECE programming.
- On average, ECE providers serving Black and Latinx children receive significantly less per-child tiered reimbursement funding than providers serving White children.
- Plausible policy alternatives to tiered reimbursement include increases in base subsidy rates, increases in funding for home-based and relative and neighbor caregivers, and the implementation of progressive funding formulas.
Categories
Child Development & Well-Being, Children, Early Childhood Care & Education, Economic Support, Economic Support General, Education & Training, Inequality & Mobility, Racial/Ethnic Inequality