Looney and Duff Urge Early Childhood Endowment Board to Prioritize Long-Term Sustainability

HARTFORD — Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney (D-New Haven) and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk) today sent a letter to the Early Childhood Education Endowment Advisory Board urging the Board to ground its deliberations in fiscal sustainability, data transparency, and a disciplined approach to program expansion as the state’s landmark endowment moves into its next phase of implementation.

The Early Childhood Education Endowment was established by the Connecticut General Assembly to provide a long-term, stable source of funding for child care providers and families across the state. The Office of Early Childhood has recently refined its projections of program need, prompting Senate Democratic leaders to call on the Advisory Board to ensure that commitments made to families and providers can be honored not only in the near term, but for years to come.

“Families require stable, affordable care. Providers need predictable funding to maintain and grow capacity. And the state has made a meaningful commitment to strengthening this system. That commitment must remain strong,” Senators Looney and Duff wrote. “At the same time, it is equally important that the system we build is one that can endure — both fiscally and programmatically.”

The senators acknowledged strong investment performance by State Treasurer Russell while cautioning that the endowment must be positioned to weather long-term fluctuations in economic conditions and annual budget surpluses.

“This endowment is intended to be a long-term source of income for Connecticut’s families and providers and therefore must be able to weather economic changes and surplus fluctuations from year-to-year,” Senators Looney and Duff wrote. “As implementation progresses, we are collectively gaining a clearer understanding of the true scale and cost of the system we are working on building.”

In their letter, Senators Looney and Duff asked the Advisory Board to give particular attention to:

• The alignment between projected program costs and the long-term capacity of the endowment;
• The quality, completeness, and transparency of the data informing those projections; and
• The timing and sequencing of program expansion to ensure sustainability.

“Thoughtful deliberation, informed by complete and accurate data, will be essential to navigating the decisions ahead,” they wrote. “Our commitment to continued investment in early childhood remains unwavering and we recognize that additional resources may be part of the path forward. At the same time, it is critical that any expansion of services be matched by a clear and sustainable funding strategy.”

The senators closed by reaffirming the shared goal underlying the endowment’s creation.

“Our shared goal is a system that works — not only today, but well into the future. That requires both ambition and discipline,” Senators Looney and Duff concluded.

The full letter is below.