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Erin Tiernan: Battle for affordable child care wages on Beacon Hill, in Washington

Boston Herald - 4/27/2021

Apr. 27—Two of the Bay State's most powerful pols — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark — are urging President Biden to make a $700 billion, 10-year investment in universal child care as part of the American Families Plan he's set to unveil ahead of his Wednesday address to Congress.

Among their asks is to cap out-of-pocket child care costs for families at no more than 7% of their income and raise pay rates for providers to ensure they earn a "living wage."

It's a plan that mirrors one being laid out by Beacon Hill lawmakers. State Senate President Karen Spilka has named addressing the "caregiving crisis" as a top priority for the legislative session and for making sure women don't continue to get cut out of the workforce.

Spilka said she plans to funnel state and federal stimulus money into a solution. Massachusetts expects to receive more than $685 million in federal aid for child care between the CARES Act passed early in the pandemic, the American Rescue Plan and other funding sources.

During a visit to the MetroWest YMCA last month, Warren and Clark called the millions Massachusetts would receive under Biden's American Rescue Plan "stabilization funding."

"We don't see this as a one and done," Warren said. "We have a long-term need, and we need a long-term response at the federal level."

Amanda Goodwin, director of marketing and communications for Little Sprouts, called the money "a start."

"But if we want to talk about a massive reboot, if we want to talk about giving our kids the best possible shot from the earliest possible date, we can no longer pretend that that doesn't start with taking care of the people who do this work," Goodwin said.

To start, Goodwin called for using state and federal aid to raise wages for early child care workers, in part to help with burnout and retention. Goodwin said Little Sprouts has 122 open positions across 40 schools and is losing workers just as fast as it's able to hire.

"It's still a pretty backwards system when you can start at Dunkin' or Target for $15 or $17 an hour but you can't care for kids for $15 or $17 an hour," Goodwin said. "Unfortunately, the only lever that early education ever has to pull is parents' tuition, which families can't pay either."

Policies to create more affordable access to child care have been gaining traction in the Bay State, particularly amid the pandemic. Sen. Jason Lewis filed a bill he said would create a universal system of affordable, high-quality child care, but carries a price tag upward of $2 billion.

Education and child care experts during a hearing last week warned state senators of a "short window" to pitch reforms needed to address inequities laid bare by the pandemic.

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