'We can't afford not to do this.' MA plan would drop child care costs, pay teachers more

Despite a tightening state budget picture, the Senate next week plans to take up a pricey early education and child care bill aimed at expanding access to education for the state’s youngest learners and making it more affordable for families, with Senate President Karen Spilka saying the state can't afford not to take action.

The Senate plans to put the bill (S 2619) on the floor on Thursday, March 14.  During a morning press conference at a Head Start center, no cost estimate was offered but the bill calls for sustained investments at a time when tax receipts are faltering. A Senate Ways and Means Committee summary of the plan said it will be funded by $1.5 billion that's included in this year's state budget, which Gov. Maura Healey signed in August 2023, and "will be subject to additional appropriations in future fiscal years."

"The impact on the children, the positive impact that lasts throughout their whole lives by participating in programs like this, we can't afford to not do this," Spilka said when asked about the bill's price tag.

Average cost of child care in Massachusetts is more than $20,000

The average annual cost for child care in Massachusetts exceeds $20,000, reflecting more than 22% of the median family's income and more than 75% of the wages a typical early educator earns, according to a 2022 special legislative commission report.

The sweeping reform bill is aimed at aiding child care and early education providers, fortifying the pipeline of workers entering that field, and helping more families access the costly service vital to their economic success.

"[Early education] increases a student's success later on in their life -- throughout their whole life, research shows, it increases their success. It allows parents to jump back into their jobs and gives educators a career path that they can be in for the long haul," Spilka said.

The last version of this bill didn't make it through the House

The bill unveiled Thursday resembles a bill the Senate passed in 2022 that did not make it through the House. The exact price tag on that early education and care bill was also unclear, though Senate leaders pointed to the special commission report estimating it would cost "upwards of $1.5 billion annually over time" to implement its recommended changes.

Some of those changes recommended by the commission -- such as expanded child care grants -- have already started coming into effect, even without a large-scale bill.

"This legislation will be funded by the more than $1.5 billion appropriated for early education and care in the fiscal year 2024 budget, a 78% increase over fiscal year 2021, and will be subject to additional appropriations in future fiscal years," says a poll from the Senate Ways and Means Committee on a redraft of the bill.

The bill would codify into law a plan to spend the $1.5 billion already appropriated in the fiscal year 2024 budget. It lays out a plan for how the state can implement additional funding in years to come, which is subject to appropriation in future budgets, but doesn't obligate the state to specific investment numbers in the future.

The Senate bill included many of the recommendations that the 2022 legislative commission said would help make child care more affordable for families and a more viable career for those working in the sector.

How will this bill help families?

If approved, the bill would gradually raise the ceiling for early education and child care subsidies, opening up access to some degree of aid for many more Massachusetts families.

Current law limits subsidies to households whose incomes equal 50% or less the state median income, or $73,000. The bill would raise the eligibility threshold to 85% of the state median income, which is $124,000 for a family of four, according to Education Committee Co-chair Sen. Jason Lewis. Subject to available funding, it would also eventually raise the eligibility threshold to 125% of state median income, or $182,000 for a household of four. Lower income families would still be prioritized.

Additionally, the bill would require that parents’ out-of-pocket fees for subsidized children be no more than 7% of family income.

Other sections of the legislation seek to "stabilize" providers by creating a permanent framework for Commonwealth Cares for Children, or C3, stabilization grants. These C3 grants helped keep early education centers afloat during the pandemic, and Gov. Healey recommends $475 million to continue the grants in her pending budget. The bill would set minimum criteria for the formula the administration would use to distribute that funding, Lewis said.

According to Spilka's office, more than 90% of the early education and care programs in the state receive these grants.

To qualify for that increased and more regular pot of dollars, providers would need to show they are willing to enroll subsidized children, something that Lewis said is not universal in the current early education landscape.

Massachusetts child care providers face workforce shortages

The expansive bill also seeks to address workforce shortages in the sector, which industry representatives say is one of the biggest challenges facing the system.

"This is a whole system problem that demands a whole system solution. It's pretty simple when you think of it in that way," Spilka said.

Across Action for Boston Community Development (ACBD) Head Start sites around the state, 28 classrooms are currently vacant due to a shortage of qualified teaching candidates, said Gabriella Florio, center director for the Malden ACBD center where Thursday's press conference was held.

"To address this challenge and remain competitive in this field, we need to provide our staff with salaries comparable to those in public schools, sustaining our dedicated staff requires those annual salary increases which can only be achieved with increased financial support," Florio said.

Last year, the average annual salary for a teacher with a degree at the Malden Head Start was just over $38,000 per year -- about half of what their counterparts in public K-12 schools were earning, Florio said. With C3 grants and rate increases, the center raised salaries by 23% this year, bringing their average annual salary for educators to just over $50,000.

The early education bill directs the Department of Early Education and Care to develop a "career ladder" for early educators that establishes recommended salary and benefit guidelines commensurate with public school teachers.

Additionally, it seeks to establish a competitive grant program to encourage employers to set up new early education and care centers around the state, with preference given to lower-income families and child care deserts, and require the Department of Higher Education to permanently administer existing scholarship and loan forgiveness programs.

A 'transformative proposal'

"This comprehensive legislation offers an important step towards fulfilling our vision of affordable child care options for families; significantly better pay and benefits for early educators; a permanent, stable source of funding for providers; high-quality programs and services for children; and substantial relief for businesses and our entire economy. Massachusetts has made a major down payment on this vision over the past few years, and the Senate’s bill is the next step on the path to fulfilling it," said a statement from Deb Fastino, director of the Common Start Coalition.

Andrew Farnitano, a spokesperson for the Common Start Coalition, said financing the early education plan would probably look similar to the Student Opportunity Act -- which phases $1.5 billion into K-12 schools over six years.

The total cost would be several billion dollars over full implementation, he said, but not all at once. Costs would likely increase year after year, with the strategy of focusing on the lowest income families first and providing expanded relief from there.

"Although the Commission did not address or identify new revenue sources, substantial additional resources will be necessary and will likely require a combination of increased federal funding -- since the federal government currently provides more than 60% of the public funding to the early education and care sector in Massachusetts -- as well as increased state funding and/or consideration of other alternative measures, such as requiring businesses of a certain size to provide an employee benefit for early education and care similar to current health care requirements," the legislative commission on early education wrote in 2022.

Study: $1.7 billion per year to extend eligibility?

A study done by researchers at UMass Boston looked at just the assistance affordability provisions of the early ed commission -- not including the cost of raising educator pay and resulting increased subsidies needed to support that policy.

Extending eligibility under the existing system would cost the state about $1.7 billion per year, researchers found -- and that is on the lower end. Those dollars would help reduce the average amount families spend on child care from 17.2% to 4.3%, help 10,400 mothers reenter the workforce, and 21,000 currently employed parents would increase the number of hours they work, the report shows.

The average affected family would save $13,260 per year.

The report also found that nearly half of all Massachusetts families with children under 14, or under 17 with special needs, would be eligible for financial assistance under the bill's 85% state median income threshold.

Massachusetts loses $2.7 billion every year over inadequate access to child care

Though the early childhood care expansion would cost the state billions of dollars, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation released a report in 2022 that said the state loses $2.7 billion each year due to inadequate access to child care.

That number was calculated from a combination of $1.7 billion in lost earnings for employees who reduce or leave work to take care of their children, $812 million in additional costs and lower productivity for employers, and $188 million in lower tax revenues for the state.

With the state facing workforce challenges across every field, Farnitano said, expanded access to affordable child care would help families and the state's economy.

Proposal comes as revenues are on a steady downward slide

Massachusetts has brought in below-benchmark tax collections for seven consecutive months, forcing Gov. Maura Healey and Democrats in the Legislature to consider curbing their spending appetites.

In addition to wanting significant investments in early education and care, Spilka wants to make community college free for all Massachusetts residents, and Democrats have expressed an appetite to continue other high-dollar spending items they've invested in over the past few years. Budget writers are also grappling with a possible $1 billion expense hanging over their heads to pay for emergency family shelter as the emergency system has become overwhelmed over the past year.

Amendments to the bill are due at 4 p.m. on Monday, prior to the debate on the Senate floor Thursday.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Can Mass. achieve affordable child care while paying teachers more?