After months of hard work communicating with State Legislators, MADCA is pleased to report new funding has been appropriated to the Department of Early Education and Care for fiscal year 2014. In addition to maintaining funding for Universal preschool, early educator scholarships and increased funding for Head Start programs, the new budget provides $15 Million to decrease the waiting list. This roughly translates to 2200 new slots for income eligible children, which should help reduce the waiting list immensely. In addition, a modest increase in salaries for early educators has been included in the $11.5 Millions being invested by the Commonwealth for this purpose in FY 2014.