Senate Releases Bill That Would Put Massachusetts on Path to Affordable, High-Quality Early Education and Child Care

The Massachusetts Senate today released legislation that would put Massachusetts on the path to establishing a comprehensive system of affordable, high-quality early education and child care.

The EARLY ED Act—An Act ensuring affordability, readiness and learning for our youth and driving economic development—was advanced by the Senate Ways & Means Committee this morning. It takes transformative steps to improve the affordability of child care support programs—and the families who attend them—by making the state’s Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) operational grant program permanent, expanding eligibility for the state’s subsidy program, and boosting compensation for educators by creating a career ladder and providing scholarships and loan forgiveness.

In response, the Common Start Coalition released the following statement:

“Parents and caregivers across Massachusetts desperately need a permanent commitment to affordable and accessible high-quality early education and child care, and that's exactly what the Senate’s bill aims to deliver.

"This comprehensive legislation offers an important step towards fulfilling our vision of affordable child care options for families; significantly better pay and benefits for early educators; a permanent, stable source of funding for providers; high-quality programs and services for children; and substantial relief for businesses and our entire economy. Massachusetts has made a major down payment on this vision over the past few years, and the Senate’s bill is the next step on the path to fulfilling it. 

“Fully implementing this transformative proposal would make Massachusetts more affordable for many families, greatly improve our state’s economic competitiveness, and increase racial and gender equity in our communities.

"We want to thank Senate President Spilka, Chair Rodrigues, Chair Lewis, and Senator Moran for their leadership on this landmark bill for our state’s children and families. We look forward to fully reviewing the details of the legislation, and working with the Senate, the House, and the Healey-Driscoll Administration to pass comprehensive early education and child care legislation, make the funding increases of the past few years permanent, and continue to build on them until high-quality early education and child care is truly affordable and accessible to all Massachusetts families.”

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The Common Start Coalition is a statewide partnership of organizations, providers, parents, early educators and advocates working together to make high-quality early education and child care affordable and accessible to all Massachusetts families. Our goal is to ensure that all families have the care solutions they need and that all children in our Commonwealth have the same, strong start and enter school on a level playing field. We are a diverse coalition including community, faith-based, labor, business, and early education and child care organizations, as well as early educators, parents, individuals, and direct service organizations.

The coalition, established in 2018, includes more than 170 organizations across Massachusetts, and is coordinated by a steering committee comprised of the following members: CEO Action for Racial Equity, the Coalition for Social Justice, Greater Boston Legal Services, the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action (JALSA), Jumpstart for Young Children, the MA Association of Early Education and Care (MADCA), the Massachusetts Association for the Education of Young Children (MAAEYC), the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, the Massachusetts Business Roundtable, the MA Commission on the Status of Women, Neighborhood Villages, Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts, SEIU Local 509, and Strategies for Children. More than 3,000 individual parents, caregivers, early educators, center administrators, business owners, and family child care providers are active members of the Common Start Coalition. More information about the coalition is available at commonstartma.org.