HARTFORD — Gov. Ned Lamont considered Tuesday’s press conference one of the “biggest” and “happiest” of his time in office, as he celebrated the passage of a bill aimed at making early childhood education more affordable for Connecticut families.
“It’s probably the most important initiative we’ve taken in many a year,” he said. “And it’s going to make an enormous difference in people’s lives.”
The bill ensures that families enrolled in Early Start CT programs with annual incomes below $100,000 won’t pay for early child education beginning July 2027, and those earning above that threshold will never pay more than 7% of their income.
The state will create a $300 million yearly endowment fund from budget surpluses to pay for the new program. Some Republican lawmakers criticized the measure as too expensive and that it would lead to a “loosening” of fiscal guardrails.
The bill passed the House along party lines but garnered some support from Senate Republicans.
The funding seeks to tackle what Merrill Gay, executive director of the Early Childhood Alliance, considers the biggest issue with preschool teaching in Connecticut.
“It fundamentally addresses the problem that there hasn’t been enough money in the system,” Gay said.
The bill also increases the number of slots for preschoolers and infants in the coming years and raises state reimbursement rates for early childhood education centers to 88%. Participating programs must agree to pay teachers the same as public school teachers.
Kyla Siegan, executive director of the Trinity College Community Child Center, said the legislation was a recognition of teachers.
“For over 30 years, I have witnessed the lack of recognition and underappreciation that has long plagued our field. Despite the critical role early educators play in shaping the future, we have operated in the shadows, underfunded, undervalued and often unseen,” Siegan said. “Then came the COVID-19 pandemic and in that time of crisis, a light was cast upon our work. Not a spotlight, but a beacon.”
Beth Bye, commissioner of the Office of Early Childhood, emphasized that the cost of underfunding the education system fell on teachers.
“You have been subsidizing the system for decades with your subpar wages, but doing it for the children and families,” she said, adding that the bill sought to resolve issues of quality, affordability and accessibility.
“Connecticut is now a model for the nation. It has a blueprint for the early childhood system,” Bye said. “There were always such good intentions but never structural funding.”
The Early Start CT program will combine three existing programs — child care contracts, School Readiness federal grants and Head Start state supplemental grants. By 2032, Bye expects enrollment in the new program to double to 44,000 students, compared to current numbers.
Eva Bermudez Zimmerman, director of the statewide coalition Child Care For Connecticut’s Future, said they worked collaboratively with business leaders represented by the Connecticut Industry and Business Association CEO Chris DiPentia on the proposal.
“The first time we went to a hearing four years ago, the legislative body, when we asked for $700 billion to bail us out, laughed at us, laughed at us in a live hearing,” Bermudez said. “But they’re not laughing now. They understood.”
Senate President Martin Looney, D-New Haven, noted that the new legislation settled a debt owed to a critical part of Connecticut children’s education.
“More and more we realized that our education system was in many ways missing the critically important first five years of life,” Looney said. “When you talk to any kindergarten teacher, he or she can tell you, almost after the first few days, whether that child has been to a quality day care or preschool program. And those children who are not ready for kindergarten when they get there are greatly at risk of what might happen to them later on.”
House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, later issued a statement criticizing Democratic leaders.
“Child care is an acute issue for working families and for Connecticut’s economy — but that doesn’t justify tossing out common sense. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Democrats have done. They’re celebrating an unsustainable plan that ignores the basic principles of a responsible endowment,” Candelora said. “This isn’t a responsible investment in Connecticut’s future — it’s a risky promise to parents that the legislature may not be able to keep.”