Increasing access to high-quality preschool seats is a hot topic among elected and business officials locally, and statewide. Various advisory committees have suggested that public-private partnerships are one pathway to achieve the goals of increasing the number, quality, and affordability of seats. As members of the Shattuck Child Care Center community, we want to scream at the irony of our situation—a program that fits these criteria perfectly may be forced to close in September after 47 years.
Shattuck is a public-private preschool program based at the state-run Shattuck Hospital in Franklin Park. The program provides highly affordable, sliding scale preschool seats for low-income members of the hospital community, as well as market-rate seats for members of surrounding neighborhoods. As educators who have been working to close the achievement gap in Boston for 14 years, we can attest to the fact that the educational program there is nothing short of magical. The level of racial and socioeconomic diversity would be hard to find in other educational settings. Any child coming from Shattuck, regardless of race or class, is more than prepared to enter a rigorous kindergarten classroom and succeed. They love learning, have social-emotional regulation skills and possess fantastic phonetic awareness skills. Most are reading by the time they leave. Shattuck turns other concerns on their head, too. There is low staff turnover. The directors have been in place since the early 1980s; some teachers attended preschool there themselves. Unlike public preschool programs, Shattuck is open over 250 days per year and over 11 hours each day.
The state has vague, long-term plans to demolish the building that houses the Center and is forcing it to move out on Sept. 30. The Center hopes to move into modular classrooms on the hospital campus to continue to serve this community, but needs more time to secure financing. Without an extension, the Center will likely close and 39 high quality and affordable preschool seats will be lost. This is the exact opposite of everyone’s stated preschool goals. Rather than being an exemplary model for the current expansion efforts championed by Mayor Walsh, Speaker DeLeo, and others, this vanguard program will be gone forever.
Paul and Allison Friedmann
Shattuck Kids and Community
Roslindale residents