Officials Call for Action on Child Care Legislation in East Boston – East Boston Times-Free Press
By Marianne Salza
East Boston Social Centers, in collaboration with Charlestown Nursery, presented the Common Start Regional Event on December 18 to explain how the $1.5 billion initiative will improve the lives of parents and children by helping them thrive in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Elected officials and educators proposed creating more affordable childcare and increasing pay for early educators to advance economic growth.
“We are fighting for the Common Start vision to ensure that all families have access to affordable, high quality education and childcare,” affirmed emcee, Representative Adrian Madaro, co-sponsor for Common Start legislation. “Common Start addresses several key principles: it provides financial assistance to enable more families to afford and access high quality, early education. It prioritizes families at or below 85% of the state median income. It calls for significant increases in pay for early educators, and provides funding for providers to cover costs that are not met by subsidy reimbursement rates and parent fees.”
Additionally, the bill includes elements to increase racial and gender equity in the early education and childcare field, such as loan forgiveness, grant fairness, and cultural competence and bias training.