Tewksbury day care closure shows a system on the brink – Boston Globe
By Katie Johnston
For Lindsey Schofield’s daughters, Pattikakes’ was “a magical place.” The girls could run through fields, walk in the woods, and picnic with horses on the child care center’s grounds. Pattikakes’ also happened to be located just across the parking lot from the building where Schofield works as a music therapist for the Department of Mental Health, on the campus of Tewksbury Hospital.
But at the end of October, Pattikakes’ closed its doors. After 20 years in business, having survived the COVID shutdown and the stringent safety protocols that followed, the beloved day care was beset by surging costs, plummeting revenues, and chronic staffing shortages. Owner Patti MacGillivray, 68, was working 60 hours a week covering for absent teachers, sanitizing surfaces, and doing paperwork on nights and weekends. She had raised tuition after the shutdown and knew many families couldn’t afford another rate hike, which meant she couldn’t afford to increase wages beyond $22 an hour, or offer health insurance, to attract more teachers…
Governor Maura Healey addressed the situation in her inaugural speech, calling for Massachusetts to become “the first state to solve the child care crisis.” Healey has endorsed a bill backed by the Common Start Coalition — a statewide partnership of organizations, educators, and advocates pushing to make child care more accessible and affordable — that would provide public funding directly to providers, allowing them to increase early educator pay; expand access to subsidies to more families; and increase the subsidy reimbursement rate paid to providers. House Speaker Ronald Mariano and Senate President Karen E. Spilka both highlighted their commitment to improving early education and care in speeches at the start of the legislative session.
“The early education and child care market is profoundly broken,” said Mark Reilly, vice president of policy and government relations at Jumpstart, a national early education training organization based in Boston. “Providers are in an impossible position. On one hand they can’t charge more because their families are struggling to make ends meet. And on the other hand, without more resources, they can’t afford to raise compensation to attract and retain their staff.”