Maine DHHS awards child development grant to out-of-state, private equity-backed firm

For 26 years, the phone lines at Maine Roads to Quality have been a lifeline for the state’s child care workforce. A provider in Aroostook County struggling with licensing paperwork could call. A center director in York County needing help navigating the state’s quality rating system could call. The program, housed at the University of Southern Maine’s Portland campus, grew into a statewide network employing more than 30 people and serving over 10,000 providers annually.

That institutional memory is now at risk of being dismantled.

On September 21, the University of Maine System received formal notice that its proposals to continue running the Maine Roads to Quality Professional Development Network had been rejected. The Department of Health and Human Services had instead offered a pair of contracts — valued at roughly $10 million over two years — to Shine Early Learning, a New York-based company owned by Acelero Inc., which counts BlackRock among its major investors.

The decision ends a nearly three-decade partnership between the state and the university-based program. It also triggers expected layoffs for a staff that includes employees with more than 15 years of experience in Maine’s early childhood education landscape.

“The University of Southern Maine was notified on Sept. 21 that its proposals for two state contracts supporting the Maine Roads to Quality Professional Development Network were not selected for continued funding, thus ending a nearly three-decade partnership,” said Samantha Warren, a spokesperson for the University of Maine System. She confirmed that layoffs are expected without the DHHS contracts.

DHHS spokesperson Lindsay Hammes emphasized that Shine has only received conditional awards. No contracts have been executed, and the final dollar amounts will not be public until they are finalized.

The two contracts cover the core functions Maine Roads has long performed: one for coaching, credentialing, and training early childhood educators; the other for administering a DHHS-approved training plan designed to improve care quality. Historically, both functions operated under a single contract.

According to bidding documents, Shine underbid Maine Roads by approximately $2 million across the two proposals. But price was only one factor. The state scored each bid on a 100-point scale. Shine received a 97 for the coaching contract and a perfect 100 for the training plan. Maine Roads scored roughly 73 on each.

DHHS said the scores followed the evaluation process outlined in its requests for proposals but declined to detail how Shine achieved such high marks.

What the scoring criteria don’t fully capture is the operational shift Shine proposes. The company’s applications indicate it plans to deploy artificial intelligence for tasks currently handled by Maine Roads’ human staff: an “AI-powered family navigation assistant,” an AI-assisted employee vetting tool, and an AI agent to manage the provider registry. The contracts do require Shine to maintain at least 10 employees based in Maine.

Shine Early Learning operates in more than 30 states. Its website promotes “data-driven services and solutions” to “accelerate child and family outcomes.” The company is a subsidiary of Acelero Inc., which in 2022 announced a “strategic investment” led by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with more than $11 trillion under management. BlackRock’s senior portfolio manager said at the time the investment aimed to extend “Acelero’s footprint and deepen its impact across communities.” Several BlackRock and venture capital executives joined Acelero’s board following the deal.

BlackRock also serves as a primary investment manager for the Maine Public Employees Retirement System.

The move has unsettled providers who have built relationships with Maine Roads staff over decades. The program was created in 1999 by the Catherine Cutler Institute at USM specifically to deliver professional development across a rural state where access to training is a persistent challenge.

Warren said the university plans to appeal DHHS’s decision. In the meantime, she said, “the university is committed to continuing to provide high-quality services for Maine’s early childhood education community through the end of the current contract and supporting potentially affected employees, many of whom have served the field through the program for more than 15 years.”

Shine Early Learning did not respond to requests for comment.