“As young women, we’re taught to be vigilant about pay equality and our reproductive rights. But nobody tells you that after you fight for your place at the table, and get into management, you’re going to have this big financial and career set back after kids, said Sarah Muncey, Educator, Early Childhood Advocate and Leader.
Childcare in the US costs more than mortgages in most cities and is tougher to find than tickets to Coachella. Lack of childcare infrastructure undermines the economy and financial stability for families. And moms pay a disproportionate price in our careers and health.
Childcare is the Great Career Equalizer
When I asked Sarah what led to her current mission, to reinvent early childhood education, she said “I realized I kept hearing the same story. Whether someone said, ‘I was trying to make partner at a law firm’ or ‘I was a manager at Dunkin’ Donuts’ everybody has a career they’re invested in and proud of. Then they have a baby and never realized childcare was going to be so hard to find.”
Yet it’s Inaccessible for Most
Sarah said, “you think, ‘yay, I’m pregnant!’ then you call around and can’t find a childcare spot and start to think, ‘wait a minute, how am I going to go back to work?’ A lot of parents don’t call until they’re 5 months pregnant and have no idea. Then if you do get a spot, it costs more than college so it’s bad on every level. For families, the children themselves and for educators in the in the age zero to 5 field. It isn’t working for anyone. So, my co-founder Lauren Birchfield Kennedy and I thought, how can we fix it?”
The US Doesn’t Have a Childcare “System”
Most of us don’t realize how loose the childcare infrastructure really is, until we have to rely on it. Regardless of where you live, how much money you make or don’t make and whether you’re in the paid workforce or not, childcare in the US is hard.
Sarah said, “A childcare system is possible and that’s what our work is. We have a public school system and healthcare system. So, we’re operationalizing and actualizing a childcare system through policy and direct service programs. And we’ve had a ton of success.”
And it Requires Holistic Supports
We kind of get the worst of both worlds in the US. Childcare is either too expensive, inaccessible or both for most families. Yet it also rarely pays the caregiving workforce living wages and the profession is plagued with burnout. Everybody loses.
Most developed countries subsidize early childhood education at much higher rates than the US. As a result, the industry operates on thin margins. Which makes capacity planning and surviving disasters, like the pandemic, difficult to recover from.
Many of us Run Towards Broken Things
Innovation work is exciting and daunting, especially in entrenched systems like childcare and education. I asked Sarah, what led her into this fight? “I taught 7th grade for a long time before I became a school administrator.” She explained part of her role, when she moved into administration was to support kids with greater needs. “If someone needed shoes, laundry services, food, or camp, that was my job. And I noticed families were coming in with higher and higher needs and kids were more traumatized, but not always by a specific event. Poverty in America is traumatizing and there’s no ‘PTSD’ because there’s no ‘post’ they’re reacting to ongoing trauma.”
When the Potential for Impact is Huge
Sarah couldn’t ignore the challenges facing kids or the frequency. “It’s when they’re walking to school, getting to their apartments, or they’re upset because their mom is leaving to go work on Nantucket for the summer. There are all of these layers on top of normal middle school, which is already emotionally fraught.”
The problems were escalating long before the pandemic exposed how fragile childcare infrastructure is. She explained, “Even when you’re trying to create an ecosystem in a school that sets every child up to thrive, every year, we saw kids with the same challenges arriving at the door. I thought, how did we let this happen for so long without getting them what they needed?”
Our Education System Still Gets it Wrong
Like many drawn to mission-oriented work, Sarah couldn’t unsee this dilemma as an educator, administrator and mother. “At age 10, the brain is quite developed. From ages zero to three is 80% of your brain development and from three to five years old is another 10% or so. In this country, we only invest in public education during the last 10% of brain development.”
Parents overwhelmingly scramble to find affordable, and desirable childcare. Especially before our kids are in kindergarten. But of course, childcare woes don’t exactly end there and for the families with the least resources, the opportunity gap continues to widen.
Kids Need Support to Start Much Earlier
Sarah explained, “If we would invest in the window from zero to age three, we would be investing in neural pathways. And a brain that’s capable of sitting down in a classroom in 12th grade and taking AP courses! So, you can either invest in the neural pathways up front or you can remediate. And that was starting to drive me insane because kids would make all this progress and still face hurdles.”
Sarah, and her co-founder Lauren Kennedy initially planned to start a school when they began in 2017. “The first decision we made was that we didn’t need to start a school, instead we were going to wrap support around existing childcare centers.”
And Better Childcare Systems Can Deliver
Sarah explained, “We brought in a family navigator and operations manager for each school. Because the capacity of the school principal is the biggest indicator of how well the school does. They’re the instructional and cultural leaders and in childcare centers, that person is doing enrollment, washing mats, cutting strawberries, doing paperwork for the USDA and they’re talking to a mom who’s crying because she’s getting evicted. Sometimes they’re doing it from a closet because they’re covering a break and it’s nap time.”
Sarah and her colleagues have done incredible work to build critical systems that are often missing from early childhood education centers. Most schools, especially preschools are woefully under resourced. In the past nearly 10 years, they’ve demonstrated how thoughtful interventions and systems can reduce overall costs. And improve outcomes for kids, teachers, and the community.
The Good News? It’s Possible
Despite what often feels like an ongoing struggle to make progress, moms are out there doing remarkable things to make the world a better place. If you see a problem, you can engage in fixing it. Sarah and her colleagues at Neighborhood Villages are modeling what’s possible for early childhood education centers, beyond their impact in Massachusetts.
The organization has done everything from innovate educator apprenticeships and spearhead mass in-school testing during Covid, to providing mobile classrooms in buses for migrant children and supplying diapers, clothing and other key resources for families in need. If we can change infrastructure for children and families, imagine the positive ripple effect through society.
Many thanks to the talented Sarah Muncey!
We’re in the season of giving! Consider a donation to non-profit Neighborhood Village’s “Winter Wonder Fest” and ongoing diaper drive! And learn more about supporting their work.
Follow the organization’s great adventure on the Neighborhood Villages website, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
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About Sarah Muncey:
Sarah Siegel Muncey is Co-President at Neighborhood Villages, which she co-founded with Lauren Birchfield Kennedy.
Sarah has dedicated her career to improving access to affordable, high-quality education and care. Prior to co-founding Neighborhood Villages, she spent 12 years at Boston Collegiate Charter School, one of Boston’s highest-performing public schools. There, she served first as 7th grade English teacher, then Director of Operations, and, finally, as the Director of Family and Community Relations. Prior to joining Boston Collegiate Charter School, Sarah began her career as a corps member of Teach for America, teaching 8th grade English in Atlanta, Georgia.
Sarah is recognized as a leading voice in the call for comprehensive reform of the early education and care delivery system, both in Massachusetts and nationally. A recognized leader in her community and field, Muncey’s work has been featured in diverse media outlets, including the Fortune, USA Today, NPR and the Boston Globe. Sarah graduated from Dartmouth College with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and holds a Master’s in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She lives in Boston with her husband and two daughters.
