Child care costs about the same in Western Mass., but the subsidies are much smaller – Boston Globe
By Samantha Gross
When Sheneya Johnson returned to work after having her second son, she spent her workdays using her expertise in early education to help others navigate the child care system. At the same time, she was struggling to find a classroom opening for her own son in a part of the state where the task of securing care is particularly challenging.
Ultimately, she got a spot for him at Square One on Springfield’s Main Street, where she works one floor up from him as an administrator. Since her son, Quani Wallace, now 4, joined the program, she has seen a “huge shift” in his development, she said.
The squeeze on the child care industry is a statewide problem, but the challenges are even more acute for Johnson and others in Western Massachusetts, where the current state formula provides for a much smaller subsidy than it does in Eastern Massachusetts, even though the cost of providing the care is relatively similar in both places.
Providers in the western part of the state have said for years that a high need and low reimbursement rates have dissuaded providers from taking poor children or from opening in the first place, further stretching an already overburdened industry and negatively impacting the development of children in their region…