Ohio Senate proposal to remove Step Up to Quality mandate: Crane Center Perspective
June 10, 2021
Ohio lawmakers are currently considering a proposal in the state’s biennial budget that would remove the state’s requirement that early childhood providers participate in the Step Up To Quality (SUTQ) improvement system in order to receive public funds. Alongside this proposed change was a prohibition that would have disallowed the Department of Jobs and Family Services to use federal funds, including COVID relief funds, to provide stipends or workforce supports to early childhood teachers or administrators. The prohibition was removed this week (via an omnibus amendment) and is no longer under consideration, but the fact remains that at least some lawmakers viewed these stipends for the early childhood workforce as unnecessary.
As an early childhood research center, as advocates for young children and early childhood educators, and as the provider of high quality early childhood programming, we are watching these legislative deliberations closely. We appreciate the many advocates who have mobilized in the past week to make their voices heard during what is a very fast-moving policymaking process, by design.
Organizationally, our guiding “north star” is research, as well as the lived realities of our early childhood educators and staff who serve children and their families, and it is from these two perspectives that we urge Ohio lawmakers and others to consider the following as they finalize the state budget and consider the future of SUTQ.
Legislative interest in early childhood programming is welcomed and applauded, but it must be attentive to the best available research.
Many of SUTQ’s core requirements are thoughtfully grounded in research identifying the optimal characteristics of quality care and education for young children. These characteristics include, for instance, provisions for the professional development of early childhood educators and the use of screening tools and curricula to enhance instruction. A noteworthy feature of Ohio’s five-star rating system is that it incentivizes providers to improve programmatic quality and ultimately children’s cognitive and social-emotional development. We encourage Ohio lawmakers to maintain their interest in ensuring that SUTQ is an effective system for improving the quality of care for our state’s youngest, but to do so without dismantling the core, evidence-based characteristics of that system.
The biennial budget may not be the appropriate policy vehicle to make such a change.
Now that the Senate has voted on its substitute bill, there are several weeks left for lawmakers from both chambers to negotiate differences and come to agreement before the statutory deadline of June 30. This negotiation includes ongoing evaluation of and potentially significant changes to the state’s SUTQ system. This seems too fast. We believe that policy development should include thorough stakeholder engagement as well as a review of the relevant data and evidence. Numerous stakeholders across Ohio are invested in improving the quality of early childhood programming and should be engaged thoroughly in any decisions that significantly revamp the state’s quality rating system.
We must listen to early childhood professionals.
The past year has been extraordinarily difficult for early childhood professionals and the children and families they serve. The pandemic has been financially catastrophic for many in the early childhood sector; early childhood educators have felt worried and demoralized; and it has been difficult to maintain a strong and sustainable workforce. Many policy leaders are increasingly recognizing the importance of the early childhood profession, especially in light of national policy prominence under President Biden’s administration. But a great deal of work remains ahead of us as a state; we need more policy leaders to become champions of early childhood, to recognize it as a vital window of time for developing children, and to invest in early childhood educators. We must listen to early childhood professionals and leaders. We encourage Ohio lawmakers to visit early childhood programs in their districts and speak with professionals to understand the work involved to create high quality early childhood education.