Another Opportunity for the Montessori Community?

This is an interesting policy brief put together by the National Women's Law Center highlighting changes to early childhood education in each state.

Trends include:

• raising the income levels of families eligible for assistance for high quality pre-school programs for their children
• increased reimbursement payments to programs who serve eligible children
• an increase in public funding resulting in an increase in children served
• emphasis on a mixed delivery system- meaning that both private and public programs can qualify for public funds

With 50% of American's children living at or below the poverty level, these trends mean more and more children can receive high quality pre-school experiences. And as income levels continually rise, more and more families will be able to receive public assistance.

This is an opportunity for the Montessori community to not only share the benefits of a Montessori education with more families, but to become an important part of that delivery system. Public funding means greater enrollment of children in both private and public programs.

To read about your state:

http://www.nwlc.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/state_early_care_and_education_updates_july_2014.pdf