Financing Access to Early Education for Children Age Four and Below: Concepts and Costs

In this paper I consider alternative approaches to defining universal access to early learning experiences, and consider the costs of alternative ways to make such access affordable to low, moderate and middle income families. The elements of what constitutes high quality early care and education (ECE) are specified, as is the methodology for moving from unit costs of providing such services to the budgetary costs of an entire high quality system. I argue that the most cost-effective policy is to make high quality ECE available for all children birth through five. A financing approach combining a subsidy to providers that is not related to the income of particular children, with an income-related voucher for parents can make early learning experiences affordable for all families at a relatively modest national commitment, with an investment equivalent to about 6 to 13 percent of current public elementary and secondary education spending. The wide range of costs reflects uncertainty in the research literature to guide many policy choices, suggesting the need for state experimentation and variation.