Mass. Takes Major Step Toward Child Care Reform

State sets ambitious framework for addressing one of its biggest challenges

Originally Appeared in Commonwealth Beacon

By Lauren Birchfield Kennedy

MASSACHUSETTS HAS BEEN at the forefront of many historic milestones. It established the first public school, led the way on health care reform, and was the first to enshrine the right to marriage equality. Now, Massachusetts is poised to take the lead when it comes to child care reform. 

Last week, Gov. Maura Healey signed the final fiscal year 2025 state budget, which makes a $1.5 billion investment in the child care sector. It does a lot more, as well. Flying under the radar are the landmark policy changes that the budget’s outside sections codify into permanent statute. 

The budget draws on policy provisions proposed in recent bills, including the Early Ed Act, to set forth the most significant updates to the Massachusetts early education statute, Chapter 15D, since the creation of the Department of Early Education and Care in 2005 — updates that are a long time coming.

It’s no secret that the child care system in Massachusetts, and across the nation, is inherently broken. Many families in the Commonwealth pay as much as 50 percent of their household income for infant care.

In 2023, the average cost of child care in Massachusetts for a family with one infant and one toddler in center-based care was more than $46,000, with many families spending more on child care than on their rent or mortgage. At the same time, even with high tuition rates, the dedicated professionals who make up the state’s early childhood education workforce make poverty wages. While recent state investments have helped to raise wages over the past four years, the average hourly wage in Massachusetts is still below $23.  

Something had to give. And finally, after years of advocacy from the early education and care field, it has. 

The policy provisions in the FY25 budget create a framework that will make child care more affordable for more families, improve compensation for educators, and provide the child care field with more stability — hopefully encouraging more providers to enter the sector. 

Notably, income eligibility for state child care financial assistance has been raised from 50 percent of state median income (SMI) to 85 percent — roughly $124,000 for a family of four — and the legislation will eventually raise income eligibility to 125 percent of SMI, subject to appropriation. Families receiving child care financial assistance will also pay no more than 7 percent of their income for care.

While ensuring that all Child Care Financial Assistance (CCFA)-eligible families are actually able to access assistance and find a placement for their child will be a multi-year effort that requires an additional financial commitment beyond what is included in the FY25 budget, the legislation provides a pathway to affordability for thousands more Massachusetts families.  

Moreover, this year’s budget makes permanent the Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) operations grants program, which provides foundational funding directly to early childhood education providers. Permanently incorporating these grants into how Massachusetts finances its early education sector creates additional potential for lowering costs for families and increasing their child care options. 

Since 2021, the C3 program has enabled providers to raise educator wages while holding tuition steady — and, in some cases, even reducing it. When it comes to strengthening the capacity of the child care sector, C3 has proved to be one of the state’s most impactful public interventions.

One can envision a future in which C3 is funded at a level that enables providers to pay staff professional salaries, while lowering tuition to more accessible levels for families. While the Commonwealth has a ways to go to reach that level, the new permanency of the C3 program, coupled with higher eligibility for financial assistance and enhanced funding for the CCFA program itself, offers Massachusetts a leading framework for reaching its affordability and quality goals.

Also worth noting is how the budget lifts up educators by making permanent both scholarship and loan forgiveness programs for early educators and by directing the Department of Early Education and Care to develop a career ladder for early educators that includes salary and benefit guidance for each level. While enabling providers to reach salary scales commensurate with those assigned to K-12 teachers and administrators will require enhanced funding through C3 and other financing vehicles, the budget sets in motion the creation of career and salary infrastructure that’s been missing from early education, putting in place a roadmap for success.   

In codifying many of the policy reforms proposed both by advocates and elected leaders in the last two legislative sessions (and funding them), the FY25 budget is worth celebrating. The work now lies in ensuring that funding for early education in the years ahead reflects the commitments — to families, to providers, to educators — made today. Children in the Commonwealth, and the educators helping us to raise them, deserve every dollar they’re due.