Child care centers in Mass. are near a breaking point, advocates warn

Originally Appeared in NBC10 Boston

November 28, 2023

Advocates and lawmakers are pushing for more government funding for families and child care providers in Massachusetts, warning that without it, child care centers could close and the cost for families could increase.

Pandemic-era grants from the federal government ran out in September, so Massachusetts spent $475 million to keep what’s called C3 grants going directly to providers through the end of the fiscal year. Advocates say child care centers can’t pay high enough salaries to retain their staff without passing the cost onto families, who are already paying upwards of $30,000 for tuition.

"Tuition is sky high yet teachers are paid little better than minimum wage because fundamentally what the sector needs is way more public investment than what it's currently getting,” Neighborhood Villages co-president Lauren Birchfield Kennedy said.

Now advocates like Kennedy are calling on the government to offer financial assistance permanently – both for parents and providers. Lawmakers on Beacon Hill are considering proposals to do just that. Sen. Jason Lewis filed legislation that would not only make those grants for providers permanent but would also expand financial assistance to include both the lowest and middle-income families.

“If it were not for the pandemic relief money that was provided to the early education sector, we would have really seen a major collapse,” Lewis told NBC10 Boston Tuesday. “We have to do more to help our families to afford this cost.”

Experts say without these measures, upwards of 12% of childcare providers could close their doors.

“They’re telling us we simply don’t have the money to make our budgets work and if the C3 grants don’t continue we won’t be able to stay in business,” Kennedy said.

As of two months ago, about 58,000 children received child care subsidies in Massachusetts because they are either in low-income families, transitioning off welfare or qualify as a priority population (i.e. homeless or in the DCF system). That’s an increase of about 8,000 children within the last year. Overall, about 200,000 children are in care in Massachusetts, including those paying for private early education.

“Making child care affordable needs to become the responsibility of society, the responsibility of government,” Kennedy said. “The way we have committed to ensure elementary, high school -- we need to do that for early education.”