Early Education: Policy Vision

EARLY EDUCATION: Policy Vision

ABOUT

Driven to change the fact that Mississippi has historically been last, our founders set a bold vision: a Mississippi first in education nationally. Mississippi First champions transformative policy solutions ensuring educational excellence for every Mississippi child.

We are a leading voice for state-funded pre-K, high-quality public charter schools, access to highly effective teachers, and rigorous state learning standards and materials.

TEAM

Micayla Tatum, Author Director of Early Childhood Policy

Rachel Canter, Author Founding Executive Director

Heather Bruce, Designer

Copyright © 2025 by Mississippi First. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. Icons found in this design are from Faticon.com.

INTRODUCTION

Early education is a founding policy area for Mississippi First. In 2013, we authored and advocated the Early Learning Collaborative Act, which established state-funded pre-K in Mississippi. As of May 2023, just ten years later, the early learning collaboratives (ELCs) had expanded from eleven to thirty-six communities and offered nearly 26,000 four-year-olds access to high-quality pre-K. Despite our success, our work for four-year-olds must continue since the program will encounter challenges as it matures. However, as the ELC program has grown in strength programmatically and in stature politically, we believe we now have the capacity to broaden our focus to include children ages birth to five.

Entering this wider early learning* space is a natural next step that builds on our existing pre-K advocacy. Much like the pre-K landscape when Mississippi First began its pre-K advocacy, the early learning space for children ages 0-3 is underfunded, fragmented, and in need of radical shifts to meet the needs of Mississippi’s families. To persuade policymakers of the importance of pre-K, we focused much of our public awareness efforts on the fact that a child’s experiences in the year prior to formal school entry are critical because they set the foundation for success in K-12 and life. This is even more true in a child’s earliest years: from birth to age 3, children’s brains rapidly develop the speech and language skills that will lead to later reading success by making more than a million neural connections each second.1 By age three, a child’s brain has grown to 80% of its adult size.2

* In this document, we refer to pre-kindergarten for four-year-olds as “pre-K” while we refer to programs for children from birth to five by the broader term “early learning.”

Mississippi must ensure children in this crucial period have access to high-quality early learning and care settings, whether inside or outside of the home, so that every child can achieve key developmental milestones and outcomes. Equitable access to such settings can also reduce outcome disparities between children later in life. Families, too, need affordable, high-quality, and trusted care for their children so that they can pursue work and educational opportunities to sustain and advance their families’ well-being and support their children in reaching their highest potential. For these reasons, we also believe a strong birth-to-five continuum builds the conditions for a thriving economy.

Mississippi First’s entrance into broader early learning policy is also particularly timely due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the early learning community. The pandemic exacerbated entrenched obstacles (e.g., childcare deserts, lack of affordability, and an underpaid workforce) to creating a system of affordable, high-quality, and trusted care and education. While we acknowledge Mississippi must develop a post-COVID comprehensive policy vision that addresses many issues alongside early learning, such as the health of mothers and children, early intervention, and family support services that coordinate these multiple aspects of well-being, our mission calls us to focus on those policies that address the early learning challenges that the pandemic laid bare and create the foundation for a high-quality early learning system.

Recognizing the vast and complex nature of the birth-to-five policy landscape, we focused our efforts where Mississippi First could make the greatest impact. We used several guiding criteria: challenges most exacerbated by the pandemic; policies likely to advance in the current political climate; work where we had existing momentum; and the most urgent needs facing children, families, and providers. This process surfaced four new core issues in early childhood education: sustainability (addressed through Family and Educator Supports and Layered Funding), access (Family and Educator Supports and Layered Funding), quality (Quality Support System), and systemsbuilding (State Longitudinal Data System). The five priorities outlined in this strategy represent our targeted response to these intersecting needs.

FIVE-YEAR EARLY LEARNING

POLICY

AGENDA

To this end, we are excited to announce our five-year early learning agenda, which includes ongoing and new goals:

1

2

3

4

5

Continue to improve and expand the Early Learning Collaborative program and ensure that it remains Mississippi’s only state-funded pre-kindergarten program. ONGOING

Support the expansion of layered funding programs that serve the 0-5 space. NEW

Support the adoption and implementation of data best practices for child and state program data, including a new, improved state longitudinal data system. NEW

Support the adoption and implementation of an equitable quality improvement and support system that centers provider and family voices to ensure access to high-quality early education options for all children. NEW

Research and propose policies, such as early educator scholarships and family-focused tax credits, to address the financial viability of the early childhood industry. NEW

Again, we know this is not an exhaustive list of policy goals for Mississippi’s early learning system, let alone its early childhood system writ large. However, we believe each of these policy goals addresses a key concern in the birth to five landscape that will build a strong foundation for a system to support families and children (see Appendix A for more information). As we move forward with our early learning journey, we intend to pursue these goals while remaining open to opportunities to make progress on other aligned goals or to change direction as indicated by our research.

Continue to Improve and Expand the Early Learning Collaboratives

Grow the Early Learning Collaborative program to serve 50% of four-year-olds in Mississippi by 2040 as the premier state-funded, high-quality pre-K program.

Context

The Challenges—Mississippi First’s signature early learning policy goal, state-funded pre-K, is enjoying unprecedented support and success. Since 2013, the legislature has invested nearly $143 million in Mississippi’s high-quality, nationally recognized state-funded pre-K program, including funding for both the ELCs and pre-K teacher coaches. Today, the state can serve 25% of its four-year-olds annually through this program. Yet this success does not mean we can rest on our laurels. The ELCs need further advocacy as they move into their second decade due to a host of challenges:

 Access

The ELCs’ growth over the last decade has been tremendous, yet most children and communities do not have access to this high-quality, nationally recognized pre-K program.

 Impact at Scale

Mississippi has grown the ELCs at a much quicker pace since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, raising the need to guard against a potential loss of impact as the program continues to scale.

 Diversity of Providers

Only a little over 20% of ELCs have childcare partners, which means many childcare centers in ELC communities cannot access much-needed state funding and resources to increase their quality and build their sustainability.

 Competing Visions

In the 2022 legislative session, the legislature inserted a $20 million budget line item, now known as the State Invested Pre-K (SIP) program, which did not have accompanying legislation. As a result, the program requires very little of school districts (including no local match or statutorily mandated quality standards) and allows them to bypass partnering with other early learning providers. Continued funding of this line item could destroy the ELC program if school districts choose to take the easier route to state funds.

The Solutions—As part of our ongoing commitment to pre-K, Mississippi First will continue to advocate for the expansion of the ELC program. Having reached our goal of serving 25% of four-year-olds in the state, we believe we should now set a goal of serving 50% of four-year-olds by 2040. This advocacy will also include continued focus on ensuring the financial sustainability of ELCs, with periodic reviews of the adequacy of the per-pupil rate for the program. To counter any potential loss of impact as the program scales, Mississippi First will bring scaling best practices and other support to MDE’s Office of Early Childhood.

Furthermore, Mississippi First will advocate increasing the number of childcare providers who participate in the ELCs. Supporting childcare programs through the existing ELCs allows providers to access state funds and resources to improve the quality of their offerings and build their sustainability. We want to ensure that childcare can continue to provide services to four-year-olds, which also has positive impacts on their ability to provide infant and toddler care in the same communities.

Finally, Mississippi First will advocate ELCs serve as the only state-funded pre-K program. We believe the state should combine the $20 million line item that supports the SIP program into the ELC program in one of three (or all three!) ways—as expansion funds, as special

funds to defray start-up costs for new ELCs, or as support funds for childcare partners. For the twenty-five† school districts currently receiving funds from the SIP program, we want to aid their efforts to transition from the SIP model to the ELC model. These efforts will not only protect ELCs but also grow the percentage of children who have access to collaborative, high-quality pre-K in Mississippi.

PRIORITY 2: Expanded Layered Funding Programs

To support high-quality programs, increase the number of programs blending and braiding school district, Head Start grantee, and childcare funds from 30 programs to 40 programs by 2028.

Context

The Challenges—For quite some time, Mississippi has been experiencing population decline among fouryear-olds.‡ At the same time, Mississippi has faced a decrease in the population of eligible children who can be served by early childhood programs, which are often means tested. As we face these declines, we also face a loss of resources that early childhood programs can access. Federal and state dollars are often tied directly to enrollment, which shrinks as the eligible population shrinks. Local funds are based on local taxes, which also dwindle as the population declines. If enrollment declines continue, then Mississippi’s early childhood funds may permanently evaporate, leaving children without access to high-quality early childhood seats in communities across the state. The problem is particularly acute for the federal funding on which our lower-resourced and rural communities rely.

While it may seem intuitive for funding to decline as enrollment falls, this trend creates real risks for access and quality. Early childhood programs face fixed costs that don’t shrink with enrollment, making it harder to keep programs open as economies of scale diminish. Additionally, families who exist in the “gap”, those who do not qualify for means-tested early childhood programs but cannot afford the high cost of private options, will face additional barriers to preparing their children for school.

The Solutions—One beneficial feature of the current early childhood space is the variety of funding sources that public programs can use to meet their needs and to ensure high-quality services for children and families. When multiple public funding sources are available, programs can combine them in a practice that is commonly referred to as “layering,” which can include “braiding” or “blending” funds— terms that have specific meanings according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.3 “Braiding” refers to the practice of using multiple public sources to pay for the total cost of a program. Braided programs allocate costs to each individual funding source to eliminate the possibility of expensing the same costs more than once across sources, to ensure fair expensing across sources, and to ensure compliance with rules about spending specific to a funding source. When blending funds, organizations combine multiple funding

† Bay St. Louis-Waveland School District, Benton County School District, Enterprise School District, Forrest County School District, Humphreys County School District, Jefferson Davis County School District, Lauderdale County School District, Midtown Public Charter School District, Moss Point School District, Natchez-Adams School District, Neshoba County School District, Newton County School District, Newton Municipal School District, North Bolivar School District, Philadelphia School District, SR 1 Charter School District, Simpson County School District, Smith County School District, South Tippah School District, Sunflower County Consolidated School District, Tupelo Public School District, Union City School District, Union County School District, Vicksburg Warren School District, and Wayne County School District received three-year grants to fund their district pre-K programs. The grants totaled over $15 million and do not require Head Start or childcare collaboration, though some districts are working with their local Head Start grantees.

‡ The State of Pre-K is one of our signature reports that analyzes access to pre-K based on geography and socioeconomic status throughout the state. In the third iteration of the State of Pre-K, we found a long-term trend of a decreasing number of four-year-olds. In 2011, the first year of the report, Mississippi had 43,857 four-year-olds. That number decreased to 39,319 in 2014-2015, and in the latest iteration of the State of Pre-K, the number declined again to 37,558 four-year-olds.

sources to fund specific programs or parts of a program without the need to separately account for which source of funds paid for which expense. Only some sources of funding allow blending, but the administrative burden of blending is lower because it requires fewer accounting resources.

Layering funds from compatible sources is meant to increase access to resources for a program, allowing those programs to serve more children and more easily achieve a high level of quality. Layering funds also ensures programs use local, state, and federal dollars strategically while maximizing the likelihood those resources remain in Mississippi communities.

PRIORITY 3:

Support the Adoption and Implementation of Best Data Practices

goal

Advocate and implement an aligned, transparent, and functional state longitudinal data system (SLDS) by 2029.

Context

The Challenges—In order for Mississippi First to design and advocate better public policy, we need easy access to quality data about students, educators, and early childhood programs. Data is key not only for us but also for a wide variety of stakeholders—e.g., policymakers need data to make informed decisions about state-level programs and spending, while families want data to choose the best program for their children. Without quality early childhood data, we also cannot reliably evaluate existing programs.

In theory, the state longitudinal data system (SLDS), formerly known as LifeTracks, should address this challenge. Housed at Mississippi State University’s National Strategic Planning and Analysis Research Center (NSPARC), the SLDS is governed by the State Longitudinal Data System Governing Board, composed of representatives from twelve government agencies and organizations. Initially, the goal of the SLDS was to gather comprehensive data allowing the state to follow a child’s progress and program experiences from birth to workforce. In 2024, the SLDS rebranded and focused its attention on workforce data, though according to the updated website, they are still collecting education and human services data. The comprehensive data collected by the SLDS can be used to create accountability for state investments and inform new state initiatives. However,

NSPARC has previously told Mississippi First that only those entities represented on the governing board, as well as some state officials and other parties enumerated in the law, are legally allowed to request data or reports. In other words, qualified researchers, regardless of the value of their proposal, are barred from seeking any data, even if it is not personally identifiable. Obviously, this prevents Mississippi First from requesting any of the SLDS’ longitudinal data, but the SLDS has another, larger problem: there are indications it is not actually functional.

From what we can deduce from years of observation and conversation with data sharing partners and NSPARC itself, the SLDS has merely collected all the data from state agencies into one place (at times, via portable devices physically delivered to NSPARC’s location!) but has not done the difficult work of aligning and automating it such that complicated data requests can be filled with minimal programming. Instead, NSPARC appears to construct data sets for each requested report mostly from scratch, including, in some instances,

handmatching records§ across data systems to create the very longitudinal records from which an SLDS gets its name. Additionally, the SLDS governing board exercises broad control over the research direction of the SLDS, despite the historic disengagement of the board and the lack of data and research expertise of board members. The law specifically states that the governing board is responsible for “identifying critical research and policy questions” that should be addressed by education and workforce programs, as well as “identifying reports and other information” that should be available to stakeholders.

Without a functional SLDS, Mississippi’s early childhood data landscape consists of a hodge podge of data systems that have been built over time for agency-specific purposes. As a result, developing comprehensive datasets that can inform key policy decisions is not only incredibly tedious but sometimes impossible. We know this from direct experience: Mississippi First’s signature State of Pre-K report, which aims to understand the number of four-year-old children being served in pre-K programs across multiple types of providers in every Mississippi community, is notoriously time-consuming to produce because we must request data directly from multiple agencies, all of which have different processes for records requests and collect different types and quality of information. Sometimes, the data we need is not collected by any entity, and we must develop our own data-gathering operation. (See Access to Pre-K 2017-2018, where we discuss this report and its data collection challenges more at length.)

There are at least four early childhood data systems that contain early learning data in Mississippi as well as at least one federal data system.

Mississippi Department of Education

First, MDE houses three data systems that contain early childhood information. Two of these systems are newly upgraded or developed. The Mississippi Student Information System (MSIS) 2.0 houses information on “teachers, administrators, students, school board members, and support staff, as well as annual financial data.”4 MSIS 2.0 is fully operational as of 2024. Any four-year-old who attends a public school pre-K program in the state receives a unique identifier known as an MSIS number. This system then tracks students with this number until they exit the K-12 public school system. The previous system did not track students before or after their time in the public education system, including students who participate in public pre-K programs outside of public schools. MSIS 2.0 has addressed this data problem by housing information about all children enrolled in ELCs.

The Mississippi Educator Career Continuum Archive (MECCA) is also housed at MDE and is an entirely new system that fully launched in 2024. The system tracks educator credentials but is more comprehensive than its predecessor, the Educator Licensure Management System (ELMS), and can track educators from recruitment to retirement.

Finally, MDE operates a WELS data system and exchange hub¶ that houses information about the ELCs’ performance at the site level, in addition to information about training opportunities for educators and families. WELS also tracks information about the coaching efforts of MDE’s Office of Early Childhood. This data is specific to state-funded public pre-K.

§ “Matching” is a term that refers to the process of aligning records across systems for the same individual who may be identified differently by each system, all of which must be careful not to share personally identifiable information such as a name or social security number. An SLDS would work to establish routine rules for matching records and constantly update those rules as agencies shift their data practices as well as work to resolve errors and broken matches as new batches of records arrive. With these rules, matching is automated so that pulling a set of longitudinal records in response to a simple set of search terms is accomplished with minimal effort. Having to “hand match” means that the work to automate the system has either not been done or updated routinely, so that an SLDS employee would have to figure out the matches anew for each new data set and then work through all the errors and non-matches to determine if the data set is accurate. Relying on such a process is not only time intensive (and therefore expensive) but also entirely defeats the purpose of an SLDS.

¶ WELS, which stands for Web-Based Early Learning System, is a commercial data system that specializes in integrating early childhood data from other programs and platforms. Several states use a WELS database to track early learning data.

Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH)

MSDH maintains a Licensure and Reporting System (LARS) Child Care Database on licensed childcare facilities and any Head Start facilities that are not housed in school buildings, all of which offer some level of care and early learning services, including pre-K. The information stored in the database pertains to licenses, services, inspections, investigations, and monetary penalties. MSDH also maintains information about childcare providers and teachers in LARS to ensure that they meet their (basic) training requirements, including monitoring and recording teachers’ required contact hours and registering teachers for further professional development. However, this system does not archive past data.

Mississippi Department of Human Services (DHS)

DHS shares data with LARS through their system for the Child Care Payment Program (CCPP), which spends the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG). Each year, DHS collects demographic information on the children and families served and a number of metrics related to teachers, centers, professional development, and other uses for CCDBG funds. According to the Preschool Development Grant (PDG), DHS is developing two new databases, a WELS data system which will collect information on childcare programs and their teachers to solve the short-term data issue with LARS, among other reasons, and a system to align data between MDE and MDHS called the Childcare Access Tracking System (CATS). CATS will focus on gathering information about childcare centers and professionals and connecting that data to the children and programs they serve.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

Finally, the federal Office of Head Start within HHS operates the Head Start Enterprise System. This database collects information from every Head Start grantee in each state. Grantees report wide-ranging figures about enrollment, students and their families, teachers, and other aspects of Head Start. This data system allows the public access by signing up for a free, online account, so it is readily accessible for policymakers to utilize for decision making.

The Solutions—Mississippi First will advocate the creation of an aligned, transparent, and functional SLDS that follows children from birth to workforce. This will aid not only our early education efforts but also our other policy areas. To begin, Mississippi First will advocate an audit of the current SLDS to determine the current state of the system, including why the system lacks functionality. We will then advocate the governance model of the SLDS to be improved so that the research function of the system is not the work of the organization housing the system and the research is driven by those qualified to do so. Finally, Mississippi First will advocate increased transparency of the SLDS, which will allow researchers to access data for approved purposes.

As work with the SLDS unfolds, we will also advocate better data collection practices by each state agency. MDE and MDHS have begun the work of creating more robust data systems, though it is unclear how effective these new data systems will be. What is clear is that agency data systems tracking early childhood information are in desperate need of innovation to make them more comprehensive and efficient.

Create a Quality Support System

Grow the QSS to serve at least 25% of childcare centers by 2028.

Context

The Challenges—A quality support system (QSS ), formerly known as a quality rating and improvement system (QRIS), measures the quality of offerings provided to children in various early care and learning settings, assists parents in identifying high-quality early care and learning settings, and supports early care and learning programs in improving the quality of their programs. QSSs take different forms from state to state, but they all share the goal of increasing the quality of offerings and, thus, outcomes for children.5

Mississippi must pursue a QSS as part of the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 2014. CCDBG mandates that states provide information on how they will ensure equal access and improve the quality of offerings for low-income children and families. Now is also a key time to support childcare quality as Mississippi looks to stabilize the early childhood community after the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past, Mississippi had two quality rating and improvement system iterations: Quality Stars and the Standard and Comprehensive designations. Each of these systems was voluntary and had relatively low provider participation rates, which it made it difficult to improve the quality of offerings at scale. Mississippi discontinued its most recent QRIS (the Standard and Comprehensive designations) for “financial reasons” and has been without one since 2017,6 making Mississippi out of federal compliance.

Despite the urgency caused by running afoul of federal regulations, Mississippi has not moved quickly to adopt a new QSS, as both iterations of the QRIS were highly controversial. One of the more salient criticisms of these rating systems was that they perpetuated inequity in childcare. Programs that could afford to maintain or achieve “quality” (often defined by inputs, not outcomes, and based on criteria without a strong research justification) were rewarded with higher reimbursement rates, while programs that could not afford to meet these standards received lower reimbursement rates. In other words, the well-resourced were given access to even more resources. This is particularly problematic because well-resourced programs are more likely to benefit wealthy or White children, and programs with fewer resources are more likely to serve lower-resourced or Black and Brown children.7 Because early childhood experiences are so critical to success later in life, inequitable support and resources to childcare providers could contribute to or exacerbate later educational outcome disparities among children served.

The Solutions—Despite the controversial past of QRIS, Mississippi providers are ready to create a new, more equitable, and research-aligned system. In the spring and summer of 2022, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and other partner organizations, including Mississippi First, convened a team of childcare providers from around the state to seek their expertise and experience in formulating recommendations for a new system known as the Quality Support System (QSS). These providers sent their recommendations to DHS in October 2022 and also met with DHS in early 2023 to advocate the recommendations’ adoption. DHS separately hosted a series of town hall meetings across the state during the summer and fall of 2022 to gather best practices for moving forward with the QSS. Throughout 2023 and 2024 DHS spent additional time planning for the implementation of the quality system.

In October 2024, the new quality support system launched its foundational programs as ELEVATE** under DHS’s Mississippi Lift. Mississippi Lift began as a series of programs and initiatives funded by the Preschool Development Renewal Grant but evolved into a wider brand that represents all of the quality efforts of DHS. ELEVATE is composed of six teams to support childcare providers across the state:

 Division of Early Childhood Care & Development (DEECD) Coaches

 DEECD Observers

 DEECD Business Advisors

 MDE Preschool Development Grant Coaches

 Mississippi Early Childhood Inclusion Center Early Intervention Training and TA Specialists

 Child Care Inspectors

These services are meant to provide wraparound supports to increase quality for participating childcare centers. The QSS will officially launch in October 2025.

As ELEVATE continues its rollout, we will advocate for alignment with the highest quality standards nationwide and for tactics that encourage childcare centers to participate in the voluntary system.

PRIORITY 5:

Research and Propose Policies to Address the Financial Viability of the Early Learning Sector

goal

Context

Identify, research, and propose a policy solution that addresses the early childhood financial viability crisis from the perspective of families and educators and present recommendations by the 2027 legislative session.

The Challenges—Originally, this issue area focused solely on increasing early educator wages to create a more stable early childhood industry that could provide greater access to families. Mississippi First knew addressing the wage crisis also meant taking a deeper dive into the financial model of the early childhood industry. As we deepened our work, we realized creating a more stable early childhood industry required a significant shift in our approach. Providers must maintain low child-to-teacher ratios to meet the early learning and care needs of children, which means the revenue from enrolling each child must be high enough to pay for the wages of their teacher. Yet, families cannot afford to pay for the true cost of care. Furthermore, the government does not provide reimbursements for the families it subsidizes at the true cost of care. As a result, early childhood providers walk a precarious tightrope where they balance charging families enough to maintain their businesses, but not so much that families are priced out. This tightrope keeps wages incredibly low as families with young children are at their most vulnerable financially when their children are young.8 Mississippi First realized addressing the systemic issues facing the early childhood industry also meant addressing the economic situation of young families. Below, two different challenges and potential solutions are presented as distinct options for a proposed policy solution to tackle the financial viability of the early childhood sector.

** This is not an acronym, but the term is capitalized in all of DHS’s materials.

Early Educator Compensation

Early learning is known for its low wages for teachers and administrators. These low wages keep staff turnover high, which results in early learning providers struggling to keep classrooms open and families served. This, in turn, has wider economic impacts since a loss of childcare keeps workers out of the workforce.9 According to the Mississippi Department of Employment Security (MDES), the lowest paid early learning teachers are “childcare workers”†† who are making $10.30 an hour or $21,430 a year. The average “preschool teacher”‡‡ is making more but is still substantially underpaid at $13.23 an hour or just $27,520 a year.10 In part, these wages reflect the minimal educational requirements of teachers in private childcare centers. According to the Mississippi Department of Human Services (DHS), 83.1% of childcare teachers and assistant teachers have a high school diploma or GED (see Figure 1 in Appendix B),11 but this figure does not reveal the number of teachers who have gained additional training through DHS’ professional development or those who have attended some college but did not earn a degree.

According to the Office of Head Start, the average Head Start teacher earns more than preschool and childcare teachers, bringing in $16.12 an hour,12 but while Head Start teachers are doing better financially than childcare teachers, they are not being paid appropriately for their educational attainment. More than half of Head Start teachers have a bachelor’s degree (55.4%), and nearly half of assistant teachers have an associate’s degree (46.4%).13 Recognizing the disparity in pay between Head Start teachers and public school teachers, in 2024, the Office of Head Start announced a rule requiring Head Start programs to ensure pay parity between Head Start teachers and public school pre-K teachers.14 To increase salaries, while maintaining the number of children served, Congressional funding must also increase, which is unlikely to happen under the current Trump administration. It is likely that it will take many years to implement pay parity.

Public school pre-K teachers both earn the most and have the highest credentials. Licensed by the state (which requires both a bachelor’s degree and completion of an educator preparation program) and employed by school districts, these teachers have wage parity with K-12 teachers since they are paid on the state teacher salary scale. The average public school teacher salary in Mississippi in the 2021-2022 school year was $47,902,15 double the pay of childcare workers, although by no means a top-earning salary.

Low wages for early educators are not exclusive to Mississippi. In the US, the average wage of an early education teacher is only $14.01 per hour.16 Such low wages lead to high turnover rates as teachers seek better opportunities with higher pay. Teacher turnover inevitably leads to disruptions in children’s education by preventing the stable, warm interactions and environments that are key for the type of high-quality, early education that leads to better child outcomes.

To combat teacher turnover, Mississippi needs a complete transformation of working conditions for early learning educators, specifically those who are employed in childcare, that begins with compensating these teachers like the professionals they are. Pay for early educators is also an equity issue: nationally, 97% of childcare providers are women, and 38% of those women are women of color.17

In the case of childcare, appropriate compensation would support the further credentialing of the field to ensure that the workforce is prepared to meet the needs of the children and families they serve. Policymakers need more information to fully understand the qualifications of Mississippi’s private childcare workforce. The field should also gather data about the number of childcare professionals who would like to advance their education and knowledge about early childhood but have not been able to because of financial constraints.

†† The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics defines childcare workers as persons who “attend to children at schools, businesses, private households, and childcare institutions. Perform a variety of tasks, such as dressing, feeding, bathing, and overseeing play.” Their definition excludes “Preschool Teachers, except Special Education” (25-2011) and “Teaching Assistants, Preschool, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary School, except Special Education” (25-9042). See https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes399011.htm#:~:text=39%2D9011%20 Childcare%20Workers&text=Perform%20a%20variety%20of%20tasks,%E2%80%9D%20(25%2D9042).

‡‡ The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics defines preschool teachers as persons who “instruct preschool-aged students, following curricula or lesson plans, in activities designed to promote social, physical, and intellectual growth.” Their definition excludes “Special Education Teachers” (25-2050), “Substitute Teachers, Short-Term” (25-3031), and “Childcare Workers” (39-9011).” It is hard to determine whether these teachers are only working with four-year-olds or if they may also work with three-year-olds. See https://www.bls.gov/oes/ current/oes252011.htm

Increasing the educational attainment of some of the first teachers who interact with Mississippi’s children will ensure better outcomes for children if done in collaboration with additional classroom support and professional development.18 However, requiring higher educational levels will also demand even higher salaries to sustain this vital workforce. As Mississippi moves forward in considering its compensation approach, it should do so very carefully. Unless childcare professionals are compensated at much higher rates very quickly, many will be in worse situations than they are currently due to a loss of eligibility for social welfare programs such as SNAP, WIC, TANF, and CCPP.

Families' Access to Early Education

In our signature State of Pre-K Report, we found 67.3% of four-year-olds in Mississippi in the 2017-2018 school year had access to a pre-K seat.19 While this report focuses on pre-K and does not measure access to childcare seats for infants and toddlers, we do know 9,654 infants and toddlers were served in Early Head Start in the 2022-2023 school year. Additionally, we know that 34,464 infants and toddlers were served in childcare during March 2025. The U.S. Census Bureau reported approximately 138,872 children aged zero to three in Mississippi in 2022. Using the total number of children aged zero to three as our denominator, we can approximate an access rate of 31.8%.§§ In other words, we likely have major gaps in access for families.

The lack of access is a critical concern, but there are also other important questions about quality and affordability. Mississippi does not track quality for its earliest learners, though the Mississippi Department of Human Services (DHS) is in the process of launching a quality support system (see Priority 4) to rectify this issue. In other words, without early childhood programs intentionally pursuing a national quality designation, parents do not have a way to measure the quality of childcare their children can access, if care even exists in their area.

The final concern for families is perhaps the most pressing: affordability. While Mississippi has the most affordable childcare in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report, the $5,439 per year to send a four-year-old to a childcare center still represented a significant portion of the median single-parent family income (25.5%) in 2020.20 The share of income was significantly lower (6.7%) for the median married, two-parent family.21

Since 2020, the cost of childcare has shifted, especially depending on the type of care and the location across the state. Using the 2024 Mississippi Child Care Market Rate Survey commissioned by the Mississippi Department of Human Services (DHS), we create approximations for the monthly cost of care in metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas (see Table 1 in Appendix C). We use the 75th percentile of market rates to calculate the cost of care to align with the Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF) suggestion that states compensate childcare providers who receive Child Care & Development Block Grant (CCDBG) funds at this level.22 We found families are paying significantly more than the recommended 7% of their income (see Tables 2 and 3 in Appendix C).23 Unsurprisingly, single-parent families bear the biggest burden of high childcare costs, paying up to 15% of their incomes in childcare costs.

As it stands, young Mississippi families face a bleak landscape of childcare. Families may not be able to find childcare. Families who can find childcare may not be able to afford it, or the childcare may not prepare their children for later success. Families need support to find and afford high-quality childcare. As Mississippi moves forward with its efforts to support families, access and affordability must be part of the conversation. Addressing accessibility and affordability will not only support early childhood organizations and educators, but also families.

§§ Please interpret this access percentage as a rough approximation. It was constructed using data across several years. The goal of the access rate was not to find a definitive access rate for infants and toddlers in a single year, but to illustrate the access concerns in Mississippi.

The Solutions—Mississippi could take many approaches to solve the early childhood financial viability crisis. North Carolina addressed compensation issues for childcare teachers by implementing WAGE$, a national salary supplement program. Participants earn supplements based on their education, experience, and commitment to their employer. With each new credential, participants receive larger supplements. Along with increasing salaries, this solution would help with childcare teacher retention, ensuring teachers remained with their employers and that childcare classrooms remain open. This approach would require new state investment as well as more research in order to develop a program proposal.

For the challenge of childcare worker qualifications, WAGE$ has a counterpart known as the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood Scholarship program. The T.E.A.C.H. program identifies early educators for scholarships to pursue an additional credential or degree. Previously, Mississippi implemented the T.E.A.C.H. program, which was programmatically housed at DHS but not headquartered there.24 Instead, T.E.A.C.H. administrators worked closely with the Alabama Partnership for Children, which provided back-office support.25 The program was discontinued after 2015 because of its cost and rigorous requirements.

Despite the implementation issues that the program faced, it still found success. By the end of the program in 2015, it served 73 childcare professionals and benefited 3,601 children.26 In that time, participants earned 941 credit hours despite the fact the program operated for less than three years.27

Another possibility for providing opportunities for early educators to gain higher credentials is scaling local efforts. The Graduate Center for the Study of Early Learning at the University of Mississippi piloted a W.K. Kellogg Foundation-funded program to assist 70 teachers in gaining a Child Development Associate (CDA), a non-higher education-based, industry-recognized credential. This pilot program had a waiting list of more than 100 people. Accelerate Mississippi, Midtown Partners, Inc., and the Women’s Foundation of Mississippi launched an even more comprehensive pilot to provide CDAs to additional teachers in the Jackson area. DHS also announced they would use $3 million of the state’s American Rescue Plan Act funds to provide scholarships to over 2,000 childcare providers.

Providing opportunities for families to help them access and afford childcare could mean following the example of 31 states that have enacted an Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) or the 16 states that have enacted a Child Tax Credit (CTC). These tax credits target families with children and infuse cash into families who need help affording the basics. The EITC increases its value as working families earn more income until it levels off and eventually slowly decreases as families work their way to financial independence.28 The CTC targets families with dependent children and allows them to claim up to $2,000 per eligible child.29 Each of these tax credits would provide cash to the neediest families to help them afford early childhood education.

Additionally, Mississippi may consider providing families who are ineligible for the Child Care Payment Program, Mississippi’s program for federal Child Care & Development Block Grant funds, with childcare subsidies. Kentucky and North Carolina have implemented Tri-Share Models, which split the costs of care for ineligible families between families, employers, and the state. New Mexico took a different approach and has two permanent funds that distribute millions for early childhood services each year.

As it stands, families cannot afford higher childcare costs and early childhood organizations are operating with tight budgets. As policymakers give serious consideration to creating an early childhood industry that is financially viable, they will need to consider unique approaches to solving the challenges of the industry, which is largely private yet provides a vital public service: a stable workforce today and the foundation of a future workforce. We believe the first step is more research into the best way to support educators and families, whether that be through additional funding or subsidies, tax credits, permanent trust funds, wage ladders, or better benefits. Over the next few years, we plan to work with partners to research these issues and find solutions that work for Mississippi.

APPENDIX A

This diagram highlights the questions that drove our expansion into the wider 0 to 5 space and our selection of priorities. Each of the five highlighted themes forms the foundation of a system that will allow additional priorities to be addressed more effectively once we have a solid foundation.

Questions

What do families need to meet educational and developmental needs of their children?

How can we support families in their earliest years?

Questions

How can we increase families' access to early childhood programs and services?

How can we ensure families can afford early childhood programs and services?

Questions

How can we encourage early childhood programs and services to achieve higher quality?

How can we ensure families have access to high-quality early childhood programs and services?

Questions

What policy change would allow early childhood programs and services to achieve financial sustainability?

How can we make early childhood careers financially viable for all providers?

Questions

What data do we need to track early childhood access, quality, and outcomes across provider types?

Family Support Access Quality Financial Viability Data

Foundation of Early Childhood

APPENDIX B

These figures represent early childhood teachers and their credentials in Mississippi.

Figure 1. Mississippi Childcare Teacher and Assistant Teacher Qualifications, 2021

Source: Mississippi Department of Human Services, Quality Progress Report for Mississippi FFY 2021

Figure 2. Mississippi Head Start Teacher Qualifications Figure 3. Mississippi Head Start Assistant Teacher Qualifications

Source: Office of Head Start, Program Information Report 2021-2022

Source: Office of Head Start, Program Information Report 2021-2022

APPENDIX C

These tables represent estimates for monthly childcare expenses in Mississippi and childcare as a percentage of household expenses for families in Mississippi.

Table 1. Mississippi Center-Based, Full-Time Childcare Monthly Market Rates at the 75th Percentile by Metropolitan Status, 2024

Adapted from the 2024 Mississippi Child Care Market Rate Survey

Table 2. Cost of Childcare as a Percentage of State Median Income (Monthly Net Income) for Single Family of Four

In the model, we assume a single-parent family of four with three children, but only one child younger than five. The state median income is sourced from the Administration of Children and Families, a division of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The monthly net income assumes a single parent making the median income and claiming three deductions in June 2024. The monthly net

was calculated using the

and

Calculator from Gusto.com. Please interpret with caution.

Table 3. Cost of Childcare as a Percentage of State Median Income (Monthly Net Income) for a Married Family of Four

In the model, we assume a married, two-parent family of four with two children, but only one child younger than five. The state median income is sourced from the Administration of Children and Families, a division of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The monthly net income assumes two working parents making the median income and claiming two deductions in June 2024. The monthly net income was calculated using the Salary Paycheck and Payroll Calculator from Gusto.com. Please interpret with caution.

ENDNOTES

1 Center on the Developing Child. “Brain Architecture.” Accessed September 7, 2023. https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/brain-architecture/. See also National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. “Speech and Language Developmental Milestones.” Accessed January 18, 2023. https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/ speech-and-language.

2 The Urban Child Institute. “Baby’s Brain Begins Now: Conception to Age 3.” Accessed January 18, 2023. http://www.urbanchildinstitute.org/why-0-3/baby-and-brain

3 Child Care Technical Assistance Network. “Layering or Blending or Braiding Multiple Funding Streams.” Accessed January 18, 2023. https://childcareta.acf.hhs.gov/systemsbuilding/ systems-guides/financing-strategically/maximizing-impact-public-funding/blending

4 Benton, Kim. 2022. Superintendent’s Annual Report: 2021-2022. Annual Report, Jackson, MS: Mississippi Department of Education. Accessed September 7, 2023. https://www.mdek12.org/sites/default/files/Offices/MDE/SSE/2022-AnnRep/annual_report_21_to_2022_final.pdf

5 National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance & Child Trends. 2017. History of QRIS Growth Over Time [Fact Sheet]. Retrieved from https://childcareta.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/public/qris_history_2016.pdf

6 Butrymowicz, Sarah, and Jackie Mader. 2016. “Mississippi defies national trend; decreases scrutiny of early child care quality.” Hechinger Report, December 4. https://hechingerreport.org/mississippi-defies-national-trend-decreases-scrutiny-early-child-care- quality/

7 Meek, Shantel, Iheoma Iruka, Xigrid Soto-Boykin, Darielle Blevins, Brittany Alexander, Mario Cardona, and Dina Castro. 2022. “Equity is Quality, Quality is Equity: Operationalizing Equity in Quality Rating and Improvement Systems.” The Children’s Equity Project. Accessed January 18, 2023. https://hechingerreport.org/mississippi-defies-national-trenddecreases-scrutiny-early-child-care-quality/.

8 Koball, Heather, Akilah Moore, and Jennifer Hernandez. 2021. Basic Facts About Low-Income Children: Children Under 9 Years, 2019. Research Report, New York City, NY: National Center for Children in Poverty, Bank Street Graduate School of Education. https://www.nccp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/NCCP_FactSheets_Under-9-Years_FINAL.pdf

9 Schochet, Leila. 2019. “The Child Care Crisis is Keeping Women Out of the Workforce.” Center for American Progress. Accessed March 12, 2025. https://www.americanprogress.org/ article/child-care-crisis-keeping-women-workforce/#:~:text=Research%20supports%20that%20high%20child,with%20children%20under%20age%205

10 Mississippi Department of Employment Security. “Mississippi Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates.” Accessed June 26, 2023. https://mdes.ms.gov/media/126875/ msoes.pdf.

11 Mississippi Department of Human Services. “Quality Progress Report: FFY 2021.” Accessed January 18, 2023.

12 Office of Head Start. “Program Information Report (PIR) Staff Qualifications Report - 2022 - State Level.” Dataset, Head Start Enterprise System, Washington, DC, 2022.

13 Ibid.

14 First Five Years Fund. “Head Start Final Rule Makes Big Changes to Staff Compensation, Program Eligibility, and More.” Accessed March 11, 2025.

15 Benton, Kim. 2022. Superintendent’s Annual Report: 2021-2022. Annual Report, Jackson, MS: Mississippi Department of Education. Accessed September 7, 2023. https://www.mdek12.org/sites/default/files/Offices/MDE/SSE/2022-AnnRep/annual_report_21_to_2022_final.pdf

16 Coffey, Maureen. 2022. Still Underpaid and Unequal: Early Childhood Educators Face Low Pay and a Worsening Wage Gap. Research Report, Washington, DC: Center for American Progress. Accessed October 20, 2022. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/still-underpaid-and-unequal/

17 Ibid.

18 Early, Diane M., Kelly L. Maxwell, Margaret Burchinal, Soumya Alva, Randall H. Bender, Donna Bryant, Karen Cai et al. “Teachers’ education, classroom quality, and young children’s academic skills: Results from seven studies of preschool programs.” Child Development 78, no. 2 (2007): 558-580.

19 Canter, Rachel and Micayla Tatum. 2022. Access to Pre-K, 2017-2018, Research Report, Jackson, MS: Mississippi First. Accessed March 12, 2025. https://issuu.com/mississippifirst/ docs/brief_4.

20 Lurye, Sharon. 2022. “The States with the Most and Least Affordable Child Care.” U.S. News and World Report, March 31. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/ articles/2022-03-31/states-with-highest-and-lowest-cost-of-daycare#google_vignette.

21 Ibid.

22 First Five Years Fund and Center for American Progress. “FAQ: Provider Reimbursement Rates.” Accessed March 11, 2025.

23 Ross, Kyle and Kennedy Andara. 2024. Child Care Expenses Push an Estimated 134,000 Families Into Poverty Each Year. Research Report, Washington, DC: Center for American Progress. Accessed March 11, 2025. https://www.americanprogress.org/press/release-child-care-expenses-push-an-estimated-134000-families-into-poverty-each-year/#:~:text=A%20 new%20Center%20for%20American,families%20into%20poverty%20each%20year

24 Joyce Greer, email correspondence with Micayla Tatum, March 21, 2024.

25 Joyce Greer, email correspondence with Micayla Tatum, June 2, 2023.

26 Joyce Greer, email correspondence with Micayla Tatum, August 19, 2022. Please note this correspondence included the 2015 annual report numbers for the Mississippi program.

27 Ibid.

28 Crandall-Hollick, Margot, Gene Falk, and Conor F. Boyle. 2023. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC): How it Works and Who Receives It. Research Report, Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service. R43805. Accessed March 12, 2025. https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R43805.

29 McDermott, Brendan. 2025. The Child Tax Credit: How It Works and Who Receives It. Research Report, Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service. R41873. Accessed March 12, 2025. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R41873