Posts Tagged ‘#SolveChildCare’

In quotes: What do Moms really want for Mother’s Day?

Posted in Business and economy, Child care, Family engagement, National, tagged on May 12, 2023| Leave a Comment »

High-quality, affordable child care.

“Pennsylvania’s child care system is in crisis stemming from a historic staffing shortage driven by low wages. On this Mother’s Day, we are asking Pennsylvania policymakers to focus on what the Commonwealth’s working mothers really need – child care.

“So, please skip the flowers and find the resources necessary to stabilize our child care system by paying these qualified educators a livable wage.

“Female labor force participation contributes $7.6 trillion to the US GDP every year. In Pennsylvania, women comprise almost two-thirds of the essential workforce (i.e., health care, retail food, and distribution) and were key to providing vital infrastructure services and helping to keep the economy running during the pandemic.

“In the current labor shortage that is impacting all sectors, it is vital to the success of our economy to maintain the female labor force. This means supporting the ‘workforce behind the workforce’; child care.

“The average wage of child care teachers in Pennsylvania is $12.43 per hour. At this wage, approximately 21% of child care staff rely on SNAP benefits and 21% are insured by Medicaid.”

— “Don’t send us flowers for Mother’s Day. Stabilize Pa.’s child care sector instead,” an opinion piece by Tameko Patterson, Diane Cornman-Levy, and Cindy Hall, The Pennsylvania Capital-Star, May 11, 2023

Read Full Post »

In quotes: Amy O’Leary on Boston Public Radio

Posted in Boston, Business and economy, Child care, COVID-19, Early educators, Funding, MA state budget, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Pre-kindergarten, Quotes, Strategies for Children, tagged , , , , on April 21, 2023| Leave a Comment »

“Covid provided an opportunity to really highlight this issue in ways that we’ve never seen. To have babies sitting behind Zoom cameras, to have toddlers trying to be busy while people were working from home; suddenly all the things we knew [about families’ early education and care needs] were in the public eye.

Ellis and SFC at BPR

Lauren Cook and Amy O’Leary at WGBH

“We have not changed our priorities even though the the brain science tells us how critical these early years are. So that’s what I’m hopeful for. It’s not just the people who work in this field, who have young children who are fighting for this. There’s been this bigger awareness of why we need high-quality programs starting at birth…”

— Amy O’Leary, “Boston Public Radio Full Show 4/18: Tax Day,” WGBH, April 18, 2023

Read Full Post »

In quotes: child care shortage in Framingham

Posted in Child care, Early educators, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Quotes, tagged , , on April 14, 2023| Leave a Comment »

“ ‘Every place you go in the Framingham area, there are waiting lists for child care — it’s terrible,’ Mayor Charlie Sisitsky said during a forum last month on economic development.

“The lack of early childhood education providers has led to a crunch in openings for slots in preschools and other types of pre-kindergarten day care. Heidi Kaufman, executive director of education at the MetroWest YMCA, which oversees nearly 150 children in its pre-kindergarten program, said the YMCA program is booked to full capacity and has a lengthy waiting list.

“ ‘We are 100% full and we have no wiggle room whatsoever,’ she said. ‘Our wait list is so long, we won’t have any openings in the fall, which is usually when we have openings for the general community.’

“Despite already operating at full capacity, Kaufman said the YMCA would like to add to its staff, rather than relying on existing staff to work longer shifts with fewer breaks. But the child care industry in general has a limited amount of staff available. Some veterans are burned out by demands brought on by the pandemic, which made preschool and child care nearly impossible. And chronic understaffing can lead to those who remain to feel overworked and unable to perform the job to their ideal standards, leading to further burnout.” 

— “Where are all the workers? Start with child care, politicians and others say,” by Jesse Collings, MetroWest Daily News, April 11, 2023

Read Full Post »

In quotes: political consensus in Massachusetts on the importance of investing in child care

Posted in Business and economy, Child care, Funding, MA governor, MA Legislature, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, tagged , , , on February 10, 2023| Leave a Comment »

“With sky-high prices, persistent staffing shortages, low worker pay, and not enough spots to meet parent demand, Massachusetts’ child care sector has emerged from the pandemic in even worse shape. And the dysfunction in the system ripples outward, affecting children’s development and plaguing businesses when their employees can’t find reliable child care. For decades, very little has been done about it.

“This year, however, advocates say they are finally seeing political will on Beacon Hill and beyond to take action.

“For the first time in recent memory, all three key decision makers on Beacon Hill — Governor Maura Healey, Senate President Karen E. Spilka, and House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano — have explicitly said they want to tackle the issue, expressing support for legislation that would infuse the child care sector with public funding, much like K-12 schools already receive. It aims to create a five-year blueprint to provide child care and preschool for all families, and bump up the value of child care subsidies awarded to the state’s neediest families.”

“In a statement, Healey said her administration is ‘actively evaluating’ how to deliver aid for parents and educators through the budget and ‘other avenues.’ Healey is expected to announce her first budget proposal next month.”

— “Long overlooked, child care industry may finally get a permanent lifeline from Beacon Hill,” by Samantha J. Gross, The Boston Globe, February 8, 2023

Read Full Post »

Leading the Way: Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation

Posted in Child care, Funding, MA Legislature, MA state budget, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, tagged , on February 9, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Doug Howgate

Doug Howgate

Doug Howgate was a college student majoring in political science at Holy Cross when he went on a field trip to a place he’d never seen before, the Massachusetts State House.

“I’m pretty sure looking back it was during a Ways and Means hearing,” he recalls. “We went down to Gardner Auditorium. I remember seeing Senate Ways and Means Chair Mark Montigny there. You just got a sense that the building had a lot of energy, that there was a lot going on, the issues seemed relevant to where I lived, and really it just seemed like it would be a fun place to work for a couple years.”

Today, after more than a few years of work in various jobs both inside and just outside the State House and after earning a master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University, Howgate is the president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation (MTF), and he’s pushing Massachusetts to make progress on a number of issues, including early education and care.

“I’m very lucky to live in Massachusetts, a place with a very active and engaged state government, where you can see policy in action, and you can see a connection between the things you do on Beacon Hill, and the things that happen in the lives of you and your family.”

Howgate is aware of the challenges the state faces: that resources are limited and that policymakers can’t do everything. He’s aware of persistent inequities, acknowledging that “being a white guy from a liberal arts college, I had a lot of benefits that I wasn’t aware of at the time,” including Holy Cross alumni who helped him get jobs.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Welcome to Massachusetts: home of high-priced child care

Posted in Child care, Cost and affordability, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, tagged , on February 3, 2023| Leave a Comment »

“As Governor Maura Healey takes the helm of Massachusetts state government, a new report is detailing an uphill battle for one of her key priorities: The high cost of child care.

“The new data from the Department of Labor show parents in two Massachusetts counties pay the third-highest child care prices in the nation. The annual cost of infant center-based child care in Middlesex and Norfolk counties was more than $26,000, according to the data, eating up nearly 20 percent of median family budgets. Only parents in Arlington County in Virginia and San Francisco County in California paid higher sums.

“Though Middlesex and Norfolk topped the list, Suffolk and Essex counties also ranked in the top 20 for infant child care costs, and all 14 Mass. counties appeared in the top 100 among more than 2,800 counties nationwide for which data were available.”

“ ‘All across the country, families are facing burdensome childcare expenses. The last few years have highlighted the tension parents experience when they need to go to work to provide for their families, but have difficulty doing so if they can’t access affordable child care,’ Labor Dept. Women’s Bureau Director Wendy Chun-Hoon said in a press release.”

— “Eastern Mass. has some of the highest child care costs in the country,” by Christina Prignano and Ryan Huddle, The Boston Globe, January 31, 2023

Read Full Post »

Flaws in Massachusetts’ child care system cost $2.7 billion per year in lost earnings, lower productivity, reduced tax revenue

Posted in Business and economy, Child care, Cost and affordability, Funding, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Research, tagged on January 31, 2023| 1 Comment »

Screenshot 2023-01-31 at 2.04.53 AM

Screenshot: Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation

The good news: since the start of the pandemic, Massachusetts has seen increased investments in child care, up to $1.3 billion in fiscal year 2023.

The bad news: these investments aren’t paying off the way they could.

A new report from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation (MTF) — Preparing for Child Care Reform: How to Improve the Subsidy System to Maximize Future Investment — points to a key problem, noting:

“The subsidized child care system in Massachusetts is complicated and inefficient. The result of a state-federal partnership, it serves three different eligible populations with two different forms of subsidies and uses multiple funding streams.”

“Massachusetts is to be commended for its substantial investment in child care in recent years; unfortunately, the subsidy system is complex and inefficient,” Doug Howgate, MTF’s president says in a press release.

Among the results of this systemic failure, the report says, is “lagging enrollment numbers, financially unstable providers, and disruptions and delays in care for families.”

According to MTF’s previous research, this complicated inefficiency comes at a high cost: “due to inadequate child care, Massachusetts loses roughly $2.7 billion a year in lost earnings for employees, additional costs and lower productivity for employers, and in reduced tax revenues.”

(more…)

Read Full Post »

In quotes: Massachusetts’ House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka talk about early education and care

Posted in Funding, MA Legislature, MA state budget, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Quotes, tagged , , on January 20, 2023| Leave a Comment »

“There was never much doubt that House and Senate Democrats would return Ron Mariano [the House Speaker] and Karen Spilka [the Senate President] to the top posts in the Legislature for the two-year term that started Wednesday, but the occasion did produce glimpses into the policy areas where each veteran legislative leader will attempt to wield their supermajority margins in the coming months.”

“Mariano and Spilka voiced mutual interest Wednesday in addressing the slow-burning crisis in the early education and child care sector, where providers are coping with widespread staffing shortages, workers are languishing on low wages and families are struggling to pay for care, if they can even find available slots.

“ ‘We know how important early education and care is, both to addressing the “she-cession” that worsened during the pandemic and in preparing our children to learn. Simply put, it is past time to update the way we imagine and support this crucial sector,’ Spilka said.

“The Senate unanimously approved a bill in July seeking a years-long expansion of subsidies, increased pay and benefits for workers, and permanent grants to stabilize providers, but the timing of the bill’s passage left the House with little time to fashion a response.

“Mariano’s comments on Wednesday could signal that he wants his chamber to get more involved in the issue this time around, though he stopped short of embracing the expansive proposal backed by the Senate last 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. “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.’ ”

— “Speaker Mariano and President Spilka share some top priorities in new legislative session,” by Chris Lisinski and Sam Drysdale, State House News Service, posted on WGBH’s website, January 4, 2023

Read Full Post »

Welcome federal funding increases – and the need for ongoing support

Posted in Child care, Federal, Funding, National, tagged , on January 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »

In the shadow of the pandemic, there is positive and welcome progress in federal investments in child care. 

One example of this positive trend is the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (also known as the omnibus bill) that President Biden signed into law at the end of last year.

“The appropriation for fiscal year (FY) 2023 included more than $8 billion in total annual discretionary funds for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) in addition to increases for other important child care and early education programs such as Head Start,” the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) explains.

“The FY 2023 CCDBG appropriation of $8 billion represented a $1.9 billion increase above the previous year’s funding, a 30 percent increase. This is the second largest increase in discretionary funding in the history of CCDBG—following the $2.4 billion increase in FY 2018.”

Specifically, this funding helps low-income families who would otherwise struggle to afford child care.

 “The increases in 2023 for each state range from $2 million in Vermont to $209 million in Texas.”

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Child care in Congress – literally

Posted in Child care, Federal, Infants and toddlers, National, Quotes, tagged on January 13, 2023| 1 Comment »

“Last week, while history was being made on the floor of the House of Representatives, a (mostly) quieter, but no less historic event was happening in the Democratic cloak room.

“Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) brought his 4-month-old baby to work. In between votes, he changed diapers on the Democratic cloak room floor and bottle-fed his child. And Gomez wasn’t the only one on daddy duty in the House. Other parents — including Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) — brought their children to work as well. Yes, it was adorable and brightened up an otherwise dour C-SPAN feed. But the tweets about bringing babies to work, swapping parenting tips and taking breaks to feed and change also highlight a problem that is no stranger to the vast majority of this country’s parents.

“Child care is out of reach for many families in America. For most, it is too expensive and too hard to access. Parents, early learning providers and program administrators are overwhelmed, overburdened and under-resourced — and everyone is feeling the impact. Even our members of Congress.”

— “America 2023: When even members of Congress don’t have child care,” by Michelle McCready, The Hill, January 9, 2023

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »

%d bloggers like this: