Scholarships For Early Childhood Educators Deserve More State Funding

Gov. Pritzker’s proposed FY25 budget includes significant investments in young learners and early childhood, but not nearly enough for the Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity, a program to help educators get degrees and credentials.

By Letters to the Editor

Gov. Pritzker’s proposed FY25 budget includes significant investments in young learners and early childhood, but not nearly enough for the Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity, a program to help educators get degrees and credentials.

Cristiana Cocos is the parent of two children and a full-time student pursuing a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from National Louis University. She is also a recipient of a scholarship through the Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity, a statewide program established in 2021 to support Illinois’ early childhood educators to complete higher education degrees to remain in or return to the child care sector.

Since 2021, ECACE has awarded over 4,000 scholarships to students like Cristiana in 95% of Illinois counties. However, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed fiscal year 2025 budget puts this life-changing program at serious risk.

ECACE has brought thousands of students much closer to attaining their early childhood education degrees. These degrees not only help ensure our state has a well-prepared workforce for our youngest learners, but they also position these educators to earn a living wage.

The Illinois early childhood workforce, 96% of whom are women, frequently must balance competing priorities and requires greater flexibility to pursue their degrees while balancing familial responsibilities and sustaining their employment. So ECACE pairs robust scholarships with coaches and mentors to help students complete credentials and degrees.

Pritzker’s proposed FY25 budget includes significant investments in young learners and early childhood, but not nearly enough for ECACE. As Illinois works to expand access to preschool and child care, there is an urgent need to ensure enough qualified educators. The governor’s proposed budget of $5 million puts thousands of students at risk of losing their scholarship and pathway to a degree.

Cristiana emphasized, “I am worried that this scholarship will end in 2024 and I pray that students like me will not be abandoned but instead another scholarship will lift us up and support us until the day we graduate.” Early childhood advocates share this concern and urge the General Assembly to invest $60 million in ECACE in 2025 so that students like Cristiana can complete their degrees or credentials.

Maya Portillo, senior early childhood policy advisor, Advance Illinois; Catherine Main, senior lecturer and director of early childhood education, University of Illinois Chicago; Angela Farwig, vice president, public policy, research and advocacy, Illinois Action for Children

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