Neighborhood Villages Applauds Massachusetts Senate for Funding Critical Child Care Operations Grants in Supplemental Budget
Senate included $68 million for operations grants in FY23 supplemental budget
BOSTON, MA (March 9, 2023) - Today, Neighborhood Villages — a Boston-based nonprofit that advocates for solutions to the greatest challenges faced by the early education sector — applauded the Massachusetts Senate for committing $68 million to direct-to-provider operations grants in its FY23 supplemental budget. These funds will ensure that there will be sufficient dollars to continue the operations grants program for the remainder of this fiscal year. These grants, initially introduced as a pandemic response initiative, have proven essential to the field’s viability. Last week, Governor Healey included $475 million for operations grants in her FY24 budget.
Lauren Kennedy, co-president of Neighborhood Villages, issued the following statement:
“We commend the Senate for including these funds in its FY23 supplemental budget — a critical, transformative investment in sustaining Massachusetts’ early education and care sector. We know how important this grant program is to keep the struggling child care sector afloat and allow us to move towards stability and growth.
“Public investments like this should be considered the future of child care financing and are vital if we want to fix this broken sector. As we chart a new path toward child care reform, we will continue to work with the Administration, the Senate, and the House to solve the child care crisis and make the Commonwealth a better place to live and work for everyone.”
Background
Over the last year and a half, the C3 grant program has supported more than 7,100 early education and care programs across the Commonwealth – including 4,500 FCC providers and 2,600 center-based providers. These direct-to-provider operations grants have been highly effective: data from more than 6,000 grant recipients demonstrate the foundational role that operations grants have played – and will continue to play – in sustaining Massachusetts’ early education and care sector.
Some data from grant recipients includes:
751 providers (more than 12% of all providers in MA), inclusive of 556 FCC providers, reported that they would have to close if operations grants ceased.
As a result of receiving grants funds, 83% of center-based providers and 41% of FCC providers allocated grant funds to staff compensation.
With the help of C3 funds, more than 25% of all providers were able to defer planned tuition increases.
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About Neighborhood Villages
Neighborhood Villages, founded in 2017 by Lauren Kennedy and Sarah Muncey, is a Boston-based systems-change non-profit that advocates for early education and care policy reform and implements scalable solutions that address the biggest challenges facing providers and the families who rely on them. For more information, visit https://www.neighborhoodvillages.org/our-work.