Here’s how Mass. should address rising cost of child care, according to parents – Boston.com
By Zipporah Osei
Parents in Massachusetts are drowning in the cost of child care, and many are looking to the state to help relieve some of the strain.
Although high child care costs aren’t new to Massachusetts, the pandemic has laid bare how drastic of a problem it can be for so many families in the state, especially those with two working parents.
Changes to how we work are here to stay. A new report shows how Mass. needs to change with them.
We asked readers how they think the state should ease the burden of high child care costs, and most of the 201 people polled said they would support a universal early childhood education program in Massachusetts.
Some Boston.com readers are among the millions of women who were forced to leave the workforce to care for their children — many of whom will be unlikely to return.
“Due to pandemic child care shortages, I had to take an unpaid leave of absence to care for my, at the time, six-month-old for several months,” Mandy from Medford said. “I’m on multiple waitlists for child care. We have a nanny right now, but we are barely affording it. She’s paid fairly, but I know she could make more elsewhere, so we’re lucky to have her.”
A new report by the state legislature’s Future of Work Commission named child care as one of the biggest challenges to a thriving post-pandemic economy, and Massachusetts is becoming an increasingly expensive state to start a family.
To combat this problem, child care advocates have called on the state to fund a universal early childhood education program for birth to age five that would be funded similarly to K-12 schools.