At the same time that California is decreasing ECE funding, researchers throughout the nation are documenting the importance of the ECE industry as an engine of economic development. More than 58 states and localities have conducted analyses of the size and regional economic impact of the industry. Because of the way that ECE expenditures “ripple” through the local economy, this sector has been found to have an economic impact that rivals the impact of many of the industries that have traditionally received economic development dollars from local and state governments (Liu et al. 2004). Increasingly, researchers and advocates are contending that ECE can and should be.
