Massachusetts Senate passes early education and child care bill

Massachusetts state senators passed a bill Thursday focused on affordability in the early education and child care industry. (Chris Crist/Boston Herald)

The Massachusetts Senate on Thursday passed a bill that lawmakers say is critical to lowering the state's high child care and early education costs.

Democratic leaders said child care costs in Massachusetts are among the highest in the nation, comparable to the cost of sending a child to college, and often inaccessible to low-income families. Senate President Karen Spilka asserted that the unanimously passed bill aims to make quality health care more affordable.

“This will give families access to childcare funding and the freedom to return to work if they wish. Let's get them back to work. But first we need to get them into daycare,” Spilka said.

This bill makes permanent Commonwealth Cares for Children, a grant program that funds more than 90 percent of the state's early education and child care programs. The proposal adds provisions that would direct more funding to programs serving “high-needs” children, according to the summary.

The senators expanded eligibility for child care households to families earning up to 85% of the state's median income ($124,000 for a family of four). The matching grant program established in this proposal is intended to encourage employer investments to increase early education and child care capacity across the state.

The law directs state officials to develop recommended salary and benefit guidelines consistent with public school teachers. Existing scholarship and loan forgiveness programs administered by the Department of Higher Education would also be made permanent under this bill.

A spokesperson for Spilka said the bill would implement a plan to spend $1.5 billion on early education and care initiatives that Congress already appropriated in the fiscal year 2024 budget. The spokesperson said it does not obligate states to make future investments, but it does provide a plan for how the agency can spend the allocated funds in the future.

LaToya Gale, senior director of Neighborhood Villages Advocacy, said the industry is “essentially broken” as families struggle to find a place for their children.

“Here in Massachusetts, parents often cannot afford to support their children or even find child support. And our education providers pay educators well above minimum wage. They're struggling to pay their bills or in some cases stay in business and keep their classrooms open. That's what we're dealing with,” she said outside the state Capitol.