Executive Summary: Child Care Funding and Finance in Pennsylvania: Budgeting for Survival or Paying for the Cost of True Quality?

Efforts underway to expand access to high-quality child care and pre-K programs in Pennsyl­vania are aimed at improving school readiness for low-income children and mitigating the wide achievement gaps plaguing them in the later grades. For those efforts to be successful, more early education providers must have the capacity and financial stability to serve children in high-quality settings. But what does it really cost to provide high-quality care, and are the reimbursement rates for public programs that allow providers to serve low-income children adequate to support quality? If not, what sacrifices are made? Research for Action (RFA) studied how six early education providers of different shapes, sizes, and community contexts from across the Commonwealth financed high-quality child care.