Common sense might suggest that the best early childhood programs would do better financially.
But a new study finds that providers in Southeastern Pennsylvania have little fiscal incentive to reach for high quality.
A Nonprofit Finance Fund study of nearly 150 early-care and education programs in the Philadelphia area found that all of them – no matter their quality rating – operate on razor-thin margins.
So for operators, it's more of a moral choice than a fiscal one to offer robust programming run by college-educated, certified teachers.
"There's a lag between the resources required to support the provision of high quality and actually what it costs to do it. There's an operating gap," said Ann O'Brien, CEO of Montgomery Early Learning Center.
Read more of this report at the website of our partner Keystone Crossroads.
