“I knew from the first day that working with children was what I was meant to do. When I think of my future, I would love to continue on working in this field. The pay is something I feel should be talked about. In my future as an early childhood educator, I would like to see a raise in pay. Minimum wage for educators is not enough. Education to me is the most important job in the world, and to have such a important job is pressuring and the workers should be paid much more.”

We take care of children and help them learn things they can’t just receive at home. We deserve to be paid way more hourly.

“Affordable high quality childcare would be life changing for my family. Although my daughter is in second grade now my son is in preschool so we still require childcare. There is such a sense of failure on my part as a mother knowing the the preschool my son is in is not up to the standard that I would like and know he deserves.”

“The biggest struggle with childcare is getting it at an affordable cost. Not only is it hard to get a voucher to get subsidized child care but, once you have a voucher it is made extremely difficult to keep the price you pay down. You are unable to work too hard to make money for other bills because the more you work to get ahead on other bills the more the parent fee goes up. It really is just a never ending cycle and can be very overwhelming, especially for single parents.”

“Affordable high-quality Early Education and childcare would mean that my child would be safe during the hours that I would need to work. If I had access to programs I would apply for different jobs instead of limiting myself to jobs that don't having me live up to my full potential, applying for jobs that keep me earning minimum wage instead of jobs that can pay me what I should be paid for my experience and could help me financially.”

“I always knew that having children would mean a substantial change to my standard of living, but never expected how hard I would struggle to make ends meet as a professional women with a salaried position. I had my one child in graduate school to avoid having to take time off work to have children, but acquired a significant amount of debt to so. I then decided to move back to the Southcoast of Massachusetts, where there aren't many job opportunities, in order to be closer to family who could share the childcare burden. Despite doing everything "right," childcare still took up 28% of my take-home pay. This isn't even considered an affordable amount to pay for housing, let alone childcare.”

“Working-class families like ours need consideration if our Commonwealth intends to retain the talent that drives our economy. The committed child care workers that dedicate their time to caring for our children deserve equal consideration. Ensuring affordable child care is an issue that a majority of MA residents can agree on because it benefits so many directly, bolsters our economy by allowing more parents to re-enter the workforce, and makes the Commonwealth more attractive to those who might otherwise leave to raise a family.”