Opinion: What to do with billions in surplus and federal relief funds

Originally Appeared in Boston Business Journal
By: Colin Jones and Lauren Kennedy

August 20, 2021

The numbers are in: the Massachusetts state budget that ended last month had a surplus of more than $3 billion (yes, with a "B"). We could find ourselves with another surplus next July. Currently, Beacon Hill is debating what to do with the $5 billion in additional funds coming to the commonwealth from the federal American Rescue Plan. This doesn't count the potential billions more if Congress passes President Biden's envisioned American Families Plan.

It’s welcome news after a trainwreck of a year, where families lost loved ones, jobs and economic security. While the Covid-19 virus did not discriminate based on wealth, gender or race, the impacts of it certainly did. The pandemic focused a spotlight on the systemic inequities and structural racism that cause disparities across all areas of society. 

That’s why these billions in surplus and relief funds must be used to fix the major fault lines in our social infrastructure. We know exactly where to start. It’s time to fix our broken early education and child care system. 

We can’t afford not to.

Few families were spared the fallout from the pandemic’s upending of the commonwealth’s care infrastructure. In addition to the decimation of early education and care programs, K-12 schools that reliably serve children while parents are at work were also disrupted. One result was the exodus of millions of women from the workforce. Data shows that a significant contributor to women’s slow return back to the workforce is lack of child care; and access isn’t getting better. During the pandemic, child care costs rose at the same time that capacity fell. In Massachusetts, we currently have 10 percent fewer child care slots than we had before the pandemic. 

Those slots that we do have remain inaccessible to many. Before the pandemic, Massachusetts boasted the second highest child care costs in the country with families spending an average of nearly $21,000 per year for infant care. Presently, the state only serves 12 percent of families eligible for public financial assistance. Pre-pandemic, more than half of Massachusetts residents lived in child care deserts, where there are few licensed providers for children in need of care. Now, we face a bleaker landscape, with many child care programs shut down and others struggling to find teachers.

Fortunately, we have a roadmap to solve this.

Legislation, known as Common Start, was filed by an unprecedented coalition of elected officials, business leaders, early-education providers, advocates, and families. It would transform Massachusetts’ child care system, providing affordable early education and care for all families while making overdue investments in providers and educators. The bill would make child care free for lower-income families and ensure that no family spends more than seven percent of their income on child care. Teachers would see their pay increased to reflect the value they bring to nurturing, educating, and caring for our children. 

While the price tag for fixing early education is indeed substantial, it’s also a smart investment. One study found that solving the child care crisis would create $4.8 billion in new economic activity in Massachusetts. Fixing the crisis would also support child care businesses, many of which are women- and/or minority-owned. It’s also a long overdue investment in the commonwealth’s early education workforce, which is 92% women and 41% people of color. Currently, some early educators earn wages as little as $14 an hour, and 15% of them live in poverty.

Moreover, creating a high-quality, equitable early education system is key to acting on our commitments to rectify education disparities experienced by communities of color. Children who participate in early learning have demonstrated greater levels of achievement, higher earnings, and better health outcomes. These benefits are large enough to raise reading and literacy outcomes so that low-income children and students of color are on pace with their peers. Locally, Boston’s Universal Pre-K effort, later embraced by several other cities, was proven to close achievement gaps in education. 

As we build back from this pandemic, solving our early education and care crisis will be a giant leap toward a more just and equal Massachusetts - for our children, teachers, families, and economy. The solution that has eluded us for generations is finally within our grasp. It’s time to seize it.

And now more than ever, we have the money to pay for it.

Lauren Kennedy is the co-president and chief strategy officer at Neighborhood Villages, an early education and care nonprofit in Boston. Colin Jones is senior policy analyst at the Massachusetts Budget & Policy Center.