Despite state help, local child care centers face staffing shortages – Worcester Telegram & Gazette
By Veer Mudambi
Dipak Biswas has a staffing problem. The owner of the Northborough branch of the Goddard School for Early Childhood Development, Biswas is struggling to keep wages high enough to match those offered by his competitors.
His rivals aren’t other child care centers, or even the local school system, but major retail corporations…
“We cannot pay as well as Home Depot or Walmart,” said Biswas. “Local businesses are our major competitors.” Those stores can pay about $20 an hour, while the Northborough Goddard School barely manages to maintain the $15 minimum wage.
“We originally started around $10 to $12,” he said.
Many Worcester-area child care centers are facing a lack of qualified staff and in turn are running at reduced capacity…
A bill sponsored in the House by Representatives Ken Gordon, D-Bedford, and Adrian Madaro, D-Boston; and in the Senate by Senators Jason Lewis, D-Winchester, and Susan Moran, D-Falmouth, known as Common Start, would establish state support for providers, families and children.
Common Start would provide financial assistance for families at or below 85% of the state median income, which would go well beyond the current income-based qualifications, as well as direct-to-provider funding allocations for operating costs, including staff wages.
Common Start comes with an approximate $1.7 billion price tag, but Gilmore said the cost would be worth it in the long run. "The state is losing more than that in income and revenue sources from people who aren’t able to go to work and employers who aren’t able to operate because people can’t come to work," she said.