Guest columnist Suzanne Stillinger: Early education and care solution at hand – Daily Hampshire Gazette
By Suzanne Stillinger
I don’t often open the closet where my blue dress shirts, slacks, and blazers are hanging. I seldom have the opportunity to wear them in my line of work.
My shirts are a canvas for globs of paint, glue and not infrequently, boogers. My pants are a towel for the muddy hands of a 4-year-old who fell down on a rainy day. My shoulders are damp with the tears of a toddler who is missing their family and needs a cuddle from their trusted teacher.
But I opened that closet this morning and I laid out my dress clothes for a visit to the Massachusetts State House on Oct. 17, in the hope that this trip will help allow teachers like me to keep painting and cuddling for many years to come.
As national media coverage about the “child care cliff” warns of the looming collapse of a keystone of the U.S. economy, Massachusetts is uniquely poised to not only avoid this crisis, but to provide a lasting financial foundation for child care providers and families across the state. Twin bills in the House and Senate, dubbed Common Start, would cap the cost of child care in Massachusetts at 7% of a family’s income, lock in essential state subsidies for care providers, and help rebuild the educator workforce by offering better wages.