Advancing State Capacity for Equitable and Sustainable EC Systems: The EC Governance and Finance Project

ECFC hosted this discussion on the importance of early childhood governance as a lever for creating impact, and the role private funders can play informed by lessons from the Early Childhood Governance and Finance Project (ECGFP), a project of the Heising-Simons Foundation and W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Established in 2020 as a funder’s collaborative, the ECGFP envisions a country in which all young children have affordable, quality early childhood education (ECE) experiences that enable them to grow and succeed in life. In support of this vision, ECGFP supports eight states and territories (AK, CA, Commonwealth of Northern Marina Islands, IL, LA, MN, NH, NM) to focus on governance and financing at the state level and to shift their ECE governance and financing models from a program-specific approach to an early childhood systems approach. In this way, programs and funding streams orient and integrate toward a common purpose and shared responsibility for child and family outcomes—aligning and cohering the whole system so that it is greater than the sum of its parts.

The Heising-Simons and W.K. Kellogg Foundations have partnered with New Venture Fund to advance the ECGFP. Now entering its sixth year, ECGFP has insights into what it takes to govern early childhood systems effectively, informed by the states and territories supported by the project.

We learned about the project’s strategies, evaluation and a new round of direct investment to expand the project.  State levels leaders in Louisiana and Commonwealth of Northern Marina Islands engaged in the project joined us to share the challenge addressed through their ECGFP work; how they have prioritized ways of governing that are grounded in equity (racial, income, gender, language; approaches to engaging those most proximate to the ECE system, including family and provider engagement; and strategies that focused on financing in places where no child care was available.  While contextually different, both have fascinating lessons to share applicable to other places.  

Discussants

• Harriet Dichter | Lead Consultant, Early Childhood Governance and Finance Project
• Rebecca Gomez | Program Officer, Education, Heising-Simons Foundation
• September Jarrett| Program Officer, Education, Heising-Simons Foundation
  Maribel Loste | Administrator, Commonwealth of Northern Marina Islands, Child Care Licensing Program and Child Care & Development Fund
• Libbie Sonnier | Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana Policy Institute for Children