Panelists call for expanding access to early childhood education (video)

“We have to increase our public investment in early childhood education across the board,” Senate Alexander said.

Providers and advocates also need to think more about collaboration and the wraparound services that families with children in childcare often need, he said.

Alexander is the executive director of Catherine Hershey Schools for Early Learning, a spinoff of Milton Hershey School. He made his comments Tuesday during United Way of Lancaster County’s Zoom forum, “Access to Early Childhood Education in Lancaster County,” the latest in its Conversations About OUR Community series.

Catherine Hershey Schools sponsored the session. Founded in 2020, it is in the midst of a $350 million initiative to build six high-quality early learning facilities in central Pennsylvania. Three are to open in Lancaster County beginning in 2026: CHS Elizabethtown, CHS Lancaster City and CHS New Danville.

All six will serve under-resourced households, providing early childhood education, plus life-skills advising and counseling and referral services for families. Children who need additional services such as physical therapy or speech therapy can receive them on site.

“The biggest goal for us is, really, how do we break the cycle of poverty, and how do we lead to greater long-term family prosperity?” Alexander said.

He was joined Tuesday by three other early childhood education professionals: Lili Dippner, vice president of education and child development at Community Action Partnership of Lancaster County; Lisa Eckert, director of early learning at Pequea Valley School District; and Lorita Valente, executive director of community programs at Luthercare. United Way President Kate Zimmerman served as moderator.

Dippner opened with a presentation that documented the large gaps in access to publicly funded early childhood education. In Lancaster County, she said, 82% of families eligible for Pre-Kindergarten programs (age 3 to 5) are unserved.
(She cautioned that the data only reflects programs that receive some level of state or federal support; fully private operations and unlicensed facilities are not included.)

Dippner said she especially sees opportunity to expand home visitation programs, with currently serve just 2% of eligible households. They’re highly effective, she said, and could benefit any family that takes advantage of them.

The industry faces thorny economic challenges. State reimbursements fall short of the cost of high-quality early childhood education and even with discounts, many families struggle to afford it. Revenue constraints mean that salaries are low and few providers can offer healthcare, which combined with the workload leads to rapid burnout and high turnover. The average tenure for front-line workers and administrators alike is around five years, Dippner said.

Too often, facilities can’t make the numbers work at all. Pennsylvania saw a net loss of 600 programs between 2020 and 2023, Valente said, citing the Pa. Child Care Association.

“That’s huge,” she said.

Access often reflects socioeconomic status: A wealthy family seeking an early childhood program is going to have more options. Many families end up “in between,” Eckert said: They earn too much to be eligible for publicly funded pre-K, but they can’t afford it on their own.

Eckert said Pequea Valley has made progress through collaboration. Its early learning program is a partnership that involves CAP and The Family Ministries and support from the local business community, including Urban Outfitters. Initial support included a United Way of Lancaster County collective impact grant.

“We need to make sure families have what they need,” she said, “and when everybody recognizes that, amazing rapport can happen.”

Among other things, the Pequea Valley partnership initially cut CAP’s transportation costs from $85,000 per bus per year to $6,000, Dippner said. Those are savings that can go directly to educating more children.

Options for collaboration and innovation are out there, she said. Among her suggestions: Centralized enrollment hubs, which would allow parents to evaluate programs and subsidies and find the optimal placement for their children; and arrangements allowing businesses to pay for reserved childcare slots, which they could then offer to their staff as an employee benefit.

As for advocacy, stakeholders have to make it clear to legislators how acute the provider shortage it is and how much it matters for family welfare and the job market, Valente said.

Nonprofit funders like the Steinman Foundation and the Lancaster STEM Alliance are helping to drive innovation by investing in new programs, Heppner said. That serves as “seed money,” and when legislators see positive outcomes, they’re open to providing permanent funding.

Ultimately, while the problems of early childhood education are complex, the solutions probably aren’t, Heppner said.

“It’s just hard to put all the people at the table,” she said.