Plan to expand child care subsidies advances

BOSTON — State lawmakers are making another push to approve a plan expanding access to child care options for parents while attracting and retaining new workers to ease chronic staffing shortages in the industry.

The proposal, approved by the Legislature’s Education Committee last week, would expand financial assistance for families seeking child care, establish new funding for child care providers, and boost pay and benefits for early educators.

Senate President Karen Spilka, who has made early education and care a top priority for her two-year term as the chamber’s leader, said passage of the bill would expand access to affordable child care for parents across the state “by supporting families, providers and educators.”

“Our state’s families face child care bills that are higher than the cost of in-state college tuition, and that are often so high that they force one parent to drop out of the workforce,” the Ashland Democrat said in a statement. “If we are serious about solving our labor shortage, supporting families, and getting new parents back into the workforce, we must act to lower the cost of child care.”

A key plank of the proposal calls for expanding eligibility for subsidized child care by raising the income level to qualify for state-backed programs.

The current threshold is 50% of state median income for a family of four – which is about $55,000 annually for a family of four. The plan calls for “gradually” increasing that level to 85% of state median income, or $93,662 for a four-member family.

The Common Start coalition, which includes labor unions, business and advocacy groups, praised the bill’s progress and said its final passage would make the state “significantly more affordable, greatly improve our economic competitiveness, and dramatically increase racial and gender equity.”

“This comprehensive early education and child care legislation would provide the specific structure that is needed to deliver affordable 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 economy,” the group said in a statement.

Many child care centers are financially strained and advocates say low compensation and the rising costs of caring for children are putting some providers out of business.

Meanwhile, care providers are struggling to retain workers in an industry where the pay is traditionally low and the risk of becoming sick is now elevated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, advocates say.

The lack of child care options in Massachusetts is costing families, some of whom are spending 20% to 40% of their annual income on programs.

The average cost of child care is more than $20,000 a year in Massachusetts, the most expensive state in the nation, only behind Washington, D.C., and well above the national average of $15,888, according to a recent report from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.

Working families are losing an estimated $1.7 million a year in lost wages from not being able to show up for work because they cannot find or afford child care services, the report noted.

Meanwhile, employers are losing an estimated $812 million a year in productivity and worker turnover because of the shortage of child care options, according to the report, while the state government is missing out on $188 million a year in tax revenue.

Compounding the lack of options are changes in the workforce and other factors that have seen fewer people looking to work in the child care industry.

Gov. Maura Healey has made expanding child care options for parents a key plank of her agenda in her first term, tying the issue to a broader effort to make the state more affordable.

Healey’s preliminary budget for the next fiscal year calls for $93 million in new child care spending, as well as an additional $475 million in state grants to continue supporting early education providers

The state Board of Early Education and Care recently approved a plan to tap into $65 million from this year’s budget to reimburse child care providers that serve families receiving financial assistance, including a 5.5% cost-of-living adjustment for providers to help offset increased operating costs.

Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com