Last Saturday morning, parents, advocates, and state legislators came together to participate in a virtual forum to discuss the importance of the Common Start legislation, a Massachusetts bill that calls for establishing “a system of affordable, high-quality early education and child care for all Massachusetts families, over a 5-year timeline.”
Hosted by the League of Women Voters of the Cape Cod Area and the Common Start Coalition, Cape Cod & Islands Chapter, the forum included:
• Senator Susan Moran, who filed Common Start in the Senate
• Representative Kip Diggs, a member of the Joint Committee on Education
• Janae Mendes, a parent
• Rafaela Fonseca, a family child care provider
• Lynda Allen-wan-N’Tani, executive director of the Crystal Garden Children’s Learning Center
• Noelle Pina, chief of staff of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce
• Debra Murphy, the early childhood coordinator at Cape Cod Community College, and
• Amy O’Leary, Strategies for Children’s executive director
Before the forum, Jane Mendes shared her experiences as a parent with the Cape Cod Times, which reports:
“In the summer of 2019, Janae Mendes was forced to leave her job at a Cape Cod bank because she couldn’t afford summer child care for her 7-year-old daughter. (more…)