Central Mass Parents, Early Educators, & Child Care Providers Call for Action on Child Care Legislation in Worcester

Common Start Proposals Would Make Child Care More Affordable for Families, Increase Pay for Early Educators, Provide Stability for Providers, Support Children, Boost Businesses, and Advance Economic Competitiveness and Racial & Gender Equity

Worcester, Mass. – During a community meeting with area legislators at the Worcester YWCA on Monday, dozens of Central Massachusetts parents, caregivers, early educators, early education and child care providers, and advocates spoke up in support of comprehensive legislation that would help make high-quality early education and child care truly affordable and accessible to all Massachusetts families.

Local members of SEIU Local 509 and the Common Start Coalition, a diverse group of more than 170 organizations and thousands of individuals focused on establishing a system of affordable, high-quality early education and child care for Massachusetts families, discussed how funding from the Legislature has helped stabilize our state’s child care system over the past two years.

“Thank you to our legislators for continuing to fund C3 grants to support educators,” said family child care educator Gretchen Rodriguez. “These grants allow us to keep our doors open and continue to educate and care for children.”

Speakers also addressed the work that is needed to solidify and build on the progress we’ve made in recent years, and make high-quality early education and child care truly affordable and accessible to all Massachusetts families.

“Right now we have a closed classroom because we don’t have enough educators,” said Darlene Belliveau, Director of Children’s Services at the Worcester YWCA. “We are at a crossroads and need changes to be made.”

“We don’t want to be fighting for C3 grants to be continued every year but for it become a permanent fixture,” said family child care educator Juana Pena. “We need something sustainable that we can rely on and feel supported. That is why we need Common Start.”

Background on the Common Start Legislative Framework

The Common Start Coalition supports H.489 (filed by Representatives Gordon & Madaro) & S.301 (filed by Senators Lewis & Moran), which are co-sponsored by a large majority of legislators in both the State House of Representatives (102 legislators) and the State Senate (28 legislators). These bills would provide the specific structure that is needed to deliver affordable care options for families; significantly better pay and benefits for early educators; a permanent, stable source of funding for providers; high-quality programs and services for children; and substantial relief for businesses. Passage of the bills would make Massachusetts significantly more affordable, greatly improve our economic competitiveness, and dramatically increase racial and gender equity.

Under the bills, programs would be available in early education and child care centers, private homes, and schools – the same settings where early education and child care is provided now. The bills affect early education and care for children from birth through age 5, as well as after- and out-of-school time for children ages 5-12, and for children with special needs through age 15 – in line with the ages covered by the current child care subsidy system.

The Common Start legislative framework uses a combination of direct-to-provider operational funding and family financial assistance to reduce costs to families while compensating providers for the true cost of providing quality care, including higher educator pay.

·      Operational Funding: The bills would permanently establish a direct-to-provider funding allocation based on provider capacity (not attendance) that directly offsets provider operating costs, including higher educator pay – similar to the Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) program.

·      Family Financial Assistance: The bills would provide financial assistance to enable more families to afford and access high-quality early education. They prioritize families earning at or below 85% of state median income ($115,546 for a family of 4, or $78,571 for a family of 2) and, as funding becomes available, would extend eligibility for financial assistance to middle-income families.

Earlier this year, a UMass Boston report on the affordability provisions of the bills found that nearly half of all Massachusetts families with children under 14 (or under 17 with special needs) would be eligible for financial assistance under the 85% threshold. For eligible families, the percentage of their family income going to child care would be reduced from an average of 17.2% to an average of 4.3%. The average affected family would save $13,260 per year.

With financial assistance provided for quality child care and early education, 10,400 mothers would enter or re-enter the workforce, and 21,000 currently employed parents would increase the number of hours they work. As a result, the overall family poverty rate would fall significantly.

Background on the Common Start Coalition’s Campaign

Since 2018, the Common Start Coalition has been steadily building a broad-based coalition to advocate for affordable, accessible, high-quality early education and child care. During the 2021-2022 legislative session, the coalition developed the comprehensive Common Start legislative framework that would help children, families, educators, providers, and businesses, and signed up a majority of legislators as cosponsors. In the spring of 2022, the coalition’s vision was reflected in a major report written by the state’s Early Education and Care Economic Review Commission and in legislation approved by the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Education.

The Senate passed its version of the Education Committee bill unanimously in the final days of the 2021-2022 legislative session, and while the bill did not receive a vote in the House, a majority of state representatives are on record supporting the Common Start framework. Additionally, state leaders have made a major down payment on the coalition’s vision over the past few years, including $1.5 billion for early education and child care in the FY24 budget. 

A recent report by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation found that the state loses $2.7 billion each year due to inadequate access to child care, including $1.7 billion in lost earnings for employees, $812 million in additional costs and lower productivity for employers, and $188 in lower tax revenues for the state. The state’s Early Education and Care Economic Review Commission found that public funding is necessary if Massachusetts is to offer children an equal education, families affordable care, providers a sustainable business model, and educators a competitive living wage. As the Legislative Commission report says, immediate funding is needed now, as well as in the long term, to ensure that providers can keep their programs open and pay wages sufficient to keep educators in their classrooms.

Public support for state investment in early education and child care is strong, and has increased significantly over the past few years. A statewide poll of Massachusetts voters, conducted in December 2022 on behalf of the Common Start Coalition, found 73% support for the Common Start proposal, with only 18% of voters opposing it. Support was up nearly 10 points from two years prior, when the corresponding margin on that question was 64%-23%.

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The Common Start Coalition is a statewide partnership of organizations, providers, parents, early educators and advocates working together to make high-quality early education and child care affordable and accessible to all Massachusetts families. Our goal is to ensure that all families have the care solutions they need and that all children in our Commonwealth have the same, strong start and enter school on a level playing field. We are a diverse coalition including community, faith-based, labor, business, and early education and child care organizations, as well as early educators, parents, individuals, and direct service organizations. 

The coalition, established in 2018, includes more than 170 organizations across Massachusetts, and is coordinated by a steering committee comprised of the following members: CEO Action for Racial Equity, the Coalition for Social Justice, Greater Boston Legal Services, the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action (JALSA), Jumpstart for Young Children, the MA Association of Early Education and Care (MADCA), the Massachusetts Association for the Education of Young Children (MAAEYC), the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, the Massachusetts Business Roundtable, the MA Commission on the Status of Women, Neighborhood Villages, Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts, SEIU Local 509, and Strategies for Children. More than 3,000 individual parents, caregivers, early educators, center administrators, business owners, and family child care providers are active members of the Common Start Coalition. More information about the coalition is available at commonstartma.org.