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5 Years of Learning: A Report on the First Five Years of Santa Clara CARES 2002-2006.
Read the Report (PDF)
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In November 1998 the voters of California approved Proposition 10 — the California Children and Families Act, an initiative that added a 50 cent-per-pack tax on cigarettes to fund education, health, child care, and other programs to promote early childhood development from prenatal to age five. Prop 10 was designed to address the lack of public funding and support for early childhood development in the wake of a growing body of scientific evidence indicating that the emotional, physical, social, and developmental environment to which a child is exposed has a profound impact on his or her ability to succeed in school.
Children and Family Commissions at the state level and in each of California's 58 counties are carrying out the work of the initiative. In Santa Clara County the Commission asked the Early Childhood Development Collaborative to lead a community-based process to develop a strategic plan for spending the $27.5 million allocated. County Supervisor Blanca Alvarado founded the Collaborative in January 1998 as a call to action to offer a "chance for every child."
More than a thousand Santa Clara County residents worked together in a comprehensive process to create the Prop 10 Strategic Plan. The six-step planning process led to the identification of four broad goals to be achieved over the next five years related to improving programs, projects, and services for children and families. One goal states, "Young children (will) actively learn about themselves and their world, both inside and outside the home, and enter school fully prepared to succeed academically, emotionally, and socially." A significant strategy to meet this goal was to "expand and retain a highly qualified child development workforce by improving wages and benefits by establishing a Professional Development Institute." To fulfill this goal the Commission issued a request for proposals to the community.
In August of 2000, WestEd engaged a group of early childhood professionals representing 10 community agencies and educational institutions to formulate a plan to meet this goal. This group submitted a successful proposal to the Commission to develop a comprehensive system to improve the educational levels of early educators. Yolanda Garcia, Director of Children's Services, Santa Clara County Office of Education, and Dr. Peter Mangione, Director of WestEd's Center for Child and Family Studies, led the group. The proposal was based on research indicating that improved educational levels of teachers correlate directly with higher quality of programs and better outcomes for children.
The proposal was accepted by the Children and Families First Commission of Santa Clara County, and funds were allocated directly to teachers in the field of early care and education as incentive stipends. This award represents a major step in funding a system that will eventually lead to significant improvement in programs and services and, eventually, higher wages and benefits for teachers. The social return on this investment will be measured in terms of increased educational levels of the early childhood education workforce and ultimately in positive outcomes for children and families.
In March 2002, the E3 Institute officially opened its doors. In the first months of operation, the Institute staff successfully designed and implemented a process for the allocation of professional development incentives known as CARES (Comprehensive Approaches to Raising Educational Standards). Since 2002, more than 4,400 early education professionals — over 70% of the estimated eligible early education workforce in Santa Clara County — received CARES stipends totaling over $14 million dollars.
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