Investment in early education critical - Provincetown Banner
By Sandra Faiman-Silva, Ph.D.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted just how critical early education and childcare are for Massachusetts families, for businesses, and for our entire Massachusetts economy. Parents—especially parents of infants and young children—and essential workers were particularly affected, as home-based and center-based childcare facilities were forced to close their doors and older children could not attend school.
Even before the pandemic, access to quality early education and childcare was unaffordable for too many Massachusetts families. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services childcare is affordable if it costs no more than 7% of a family’s income. By this standard, only 5.4% of Massachusetts families can afford infant care. Massachusetts is the second most expensive state for childcare, and many working families pay $25,000 or more for two children in childcare, more than many families pay for mortgage or rent.
Nola Glatzel, who grew up in Provincetown and owns Earthstar Play School in Truro, was forced to close her childcare program due to the pandemic crisis, and only recently reopened. But making a living with increased COVID-related costs is difficult, she told me recently.
“When I returned to the Cape after teaching at a public school in New York City for five years, I knew that I wanted to work with children in my community,” Nola said. “During my first months here, I connected with many young people who had returned to the Outer Cape to start families and businesses, with the hopes of revitalizing the towns we grew up in and love. Many families I met, though, were struggling because of the limited options for childcare and education for children younger than four years old. I was inspired to start an EEC-licensed program that catered specifically to families with children from 18-months to three years.”