After months of planning, applications, and deliberation, Buncombe County’s Early Childhood Education and Development Committee finalized allocated funding for $3.6 million dollars to schools and local organizations to make positive, lifelong impacts on our children. In October 2018, the Board of Commissioners voted to establish the fund and a committee for funding recommendations. Early childhood education is one of the Board of Commissioners’ six strategic priorities, and the following goals identified for funding:

• System approach – collaborating with community leaders and stakeholders
• Availability – increasing access to high-quality early childhood care and education
• Affordability – making it affordable for all families
• Workforce – supporting a robust career track in the field of early childhood education
• Family Support – creating a system that responds to needs of families dealing with trauma, poverty, and addiction

“There is a crisis of need for new classrooms and new child care slots, and there is a conjoined crisis of not enough qualified teachers with the pay and benefits for their retention. There are achievement gaps associated with a lack of quality early childhood education. It is our honor and responsibility [as the committee] to provide funding to reach our goal helping every child within the county succeed during their first 2,000 days,”  says District 1 Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrara.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — Buncombe County commissioners approved $3.6 million Tuesday night in support of early childhood education.

There are more than 11,000 children who are 4 or younger in the county, but only a third of those are enrolled in an early childhood education program.

​This more than $3 million investment will be used to create classrooms and teaching centers and will also help create a pipeline to recruit and retain early childhood teachers.