Children make a sign at a rally for early education and care reform on the steps of the State House on Thursday, March 14, 2024. (Sam Drysdale/SHNS)
BOSTON — With early education and child care policy talks approaching a critical juncture, the Healey administration on Tuesday laid out plans for a dozen sessions in July and early August to hear from people about the state of the sector.
The listening sessions are intended to help an Early Education and Child Care Task Force devise plans to deliver better and more equitable access to high quality, affordable child care. The Senate has already gotten behind a plan to accomplish those goals, and ongoing talks over a consensus annual budget are also likely to lead to a series of major changes that could reshape the early education landscape.
In January, Gov. Maura Healey established the task force with an executive order that called for it to report “at least annually.” Officials view the sector as critical to helping prepare young children for K-12 education success and enabling more parents to work.
July is shaping up as a pivotal month for early education and child care. Both branches backed investments in the sector in the fiscal 2025 budgets that are being negotiated by a conference committee, and a Senate-passed bill expanding eligibility for state child care subsidies and capping subsidy recipients’ child care costs awaits a House Ways and Means Committee vote. The Senate unanimously approved that bill (S 2707) in March, with Senate President Karen Spilka calling it “critically important” and saying she hoped the House takes it up.
The Senate bill expands eligibility for child care subsidies to families making up to 85 percent of the state median income — $124,000 for a family of four. It eliminates cost-sharing fees for families receiving subsidies who are below the federal poverty line. The bill also “paves the way” for expanding the subsidy program to families making up to 125 percent of the state median income, or $182,000 for a family of four, “when future funds become available,” according to Senate Democrats.
A similar Senate-approved bill died without a House vote during the 2021-2022 legislative session, and top House Democrats have shown no indication that they plan to surface the latest bill for a vote this month.
At the start of the 2023-2024 session, House Speaker Ron Mariano indicated early education would be among his priorities this session.
“This session, the full attention of the House will be directed at examining ways to further support our vital early education and care workforce,” Mariano said during his inaugural speech. “This workforce is made up largely of women and often women of color. As we work to build a system to provide affordable access to quality child care for Massachusetts families, I was proud of the work done last session to increase salaries and other key supports for EEC workers, and I’m confident that the Legislature can do more on this critical issue.”
Implementing the Senate bill will “require substantial additional investments,” Education Committee Co-chair Sen. Jason Lewis has said, and Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr in March voted for the bill while describing himself as “very concerned about the cost of the bill, and how we will support the cost of the bill.”
The Common Start Coalition supports the Senate bill but also backs several early education measures tied up in budget talks.
In a letter to the budget conference committee, the coalition said lawmakers are on the verge of passing an annual budget that features “a historic level of funding for early education and child care” and also makes policy changes that represent a “major step” towards more affordable child care, better pay and benefits for early educators, stable funding for providers, and high quality programs for children.
Both budgets would codify the Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) grant program, allocate $475 million to fund operational grants in fiscal 2025, appropriate $774 million for ongoing child care assistance to families, and offer $20 million to increase reimbursement rates for providers who enroll children receiving child care financial assistance, the coalition said.
In a signal of how deep early education efforts run within the competing budgets, the coalition in its letter listed six measures in the House budget that it supports, and 12 initiatives in the Senate budget.
“While your two chambers have each prioritized different important policies in your respective budgets, and careful work will be needed to reconcile these complimentary proposals, Massachusetts is now poised to implement early education and care legislation — through the budget — that would make our state more affordable for many families, improve our state’s economic competitiveness, and increase racial and gender equity in our communities.”
The 12 listening sessions include five virtual sessions, one of which will be led in Spanish. The first session is Tuesday, July 16 on the Lynn campus of North Shore Community College. The last session is Tuesday, Aug. 6 at Bunker Hill Community College in Charlestown.
“These statewide listening sessions will provide a platform for parents, caregivers, educators, and child care providers to share their experiences and ideas,” Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said in a statement.
“Education doesn’t start at kindergarten – it starts at birth,” added Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler.
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