Community in Action ADVANCING STEAM OPPORTUNITIES IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD Early childhood education and quality child care are focus of partnership BY SARAH PRAGER A Head Start A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN Tracy Hartzler Dr. Sarah McKinney Explora Science Center & Children’s Museum and Central New Mexico Community College (CNM) is bringing play-and exploration-based STEAM-rich early childhood education and care to 25 children in Albuquerque, with plans to expand their services to over 100 children within two years. The program, called Brillante Early Learning Center, also serves as an educational opportunity for CNM students to get real-world practice in education. “There’s no question that our community vibrancy depends on quality child care,” says Tracy Hartzler, president of CNM. She says that after the community listening sessions of 2019, the team learned that there were many needs Brillante could meet. “Our own students who are try-ing to improve their lives are really struggling with balancing work and schooling and training with child care. Employers have told us that we need more quality child care providers so that we can meet workforce needs. And we know that the wages for these providers is not where it needs to be,” Hartzler says. “I can’t over-emphasize the importance of making this a model that allows us to both train and to help provide — and help parents pay for — quality child care.” Thanks to an investment from the state of New Mexico, any fam-ily earning up to 400% above the federal poverty level qualifies for completely free child care. (For a family of four, that’s an income of $128,600 per year.) Twenty-three of the 25 children in the Brillante pro-gram — who are all ages 2 to 5 — receive that benefit. The remaining two receive subsidized, affordable care. Planning for the Brillante program began in 2019, leading to a 2023 launch of the current pilot program. In late 2026 or early 2027, they will open the Brillante Early Learning Center with space for about 115 students ages six weeks to 5 years. A key goal of the program is to keep it affordable and acces-sible to families of all income levels to reduce barriers to high quality early childhood education and care. Students in the Brillante Early Learning Center benefit from the new partnership. The Brillante program is an exten-sion of Explora’s work with children of other ages, up through its teen center: X Studio. In working with CNM on a career pathways pro-gram through X Studio, it became clear that a lack of high-quality child care was getting in the way of young parents finishing their degrees. Dr. Sarah McKinney, the Brillante Early Learning Center director, says the program has a holistic benefit for the community. “Early childhood is so central in so many of our social systems. It supports families, it supports the workforce, it supports pathways for children’s education into K-12 and beyond. It weaves in with all the other systems that we know to be really good for our community.” McKinney explains that with more high-quality child care in a com-munity, parents can return to work and pursue their degrees. Some Brillante staff are even current or 16 Diversity in Action | SUMMER 2025 ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF TRACY HARTLER AND SARAH MCKINNEY/BRILLANTE
Diversity in Action Summer 2025: Page 18
