Boston-based advocacy effort launched to push for child-care system reform - Boston Globe
By Stephanie Ebbert
A Boston-based advocacy and lobbying effort is being launched Monday by the Neighborhood Villages Action Fund to push for transformative changes to the child-care system that have already been proposed on both the state and federal levels.
In Massachusetts, the Common Start bill before the Legislature would publicly fund child care, boost teachers’ wages, and limit families’ child-care costs to 7 percent of household income…
The Common Start legislation would tap into the new federal funding and address the overlapping crises of limited staffing, underpaid workforce, and unavailability for parents, said Andrew Farnitano, a spokesman for the coalition.
“It’s not just about the fact that child care is unaffordable right now,” he said. “A lot of times the problem is, there’s just not enough child care because providers can’t afford to pay competitive wages and they’re having to close or have limited hours or classrooms.”…
Common Start advocates are working together to build grass-roots support for the bill before a virtual legislative hearing scheduled for Nov. 23. In a child-friendly twist, on the weekends leading up to the hearing, they are staging regional organizing rallies that will double as playdates. Think Frog Pond get-togethers with face painting and music, in addition to petitions and signs.