Current:Home > ScamsMassachusetts Senate passes bill to make child care more affordable -EverVision Finance
Massachusetts Senate passes bill to make child care more affordable
View
Date:2025-04-18 06:53:29
BOSTON (AP) — The Massachusetts Senate on Thursday unanimously approved a bill that supporters say would help make early education and child care more accessible and affordable at a time when the cost of care has posed a financial hurdle for families statewide.
The bill would expand state subsidies to help families afford child care. It would also make permanent grants that currently provide monthly payments directly to early education and child care providers.
Those grants — which help support more than 90% of early education and child care programs in the state — were credited with helping many programs keep their doors open during the pandemic, reducing tuition costs, increasing compensation for early educators, and expanding the number of child care slots statewide, supporters of the bill said.
“Child care in Massachusetts is among the most expensive. It equals sending a child to college,” Democratic Senate President Karen Spilka said at a rally outside the Statehouse ahead of the Senate session. “We need to make child care and early education more affordable and accessible.”
The bill would help increase salaries and create career ladders so early educators can make their jobs a long-term career, while also stabilizing early education programs, Spilka said.
Alejandra De La Cruz, 34, a toddler teacher at Ellis Early Learning in Boston’s South End neighborhood, said she loves her job. But she said the center struggles to keep classrooms open because it’s hard to fill teacher vacancies.
“I cannot blame them for leaving. They deserve to earn a proper living,” said De La Cruz, who has worked at the center for three years.
“I look forward to a time when my salary meets the basic needs of my family including living much closer to where I work, buying healthier groceries and maybe even treating my family to a dinner at a restaurant once in a while,” she added.
The proposal would also expand eligibility for child care subsidies to families making up to 85% of the state median income — $124,000 for a family of four. It would eliminate cost-sharing fees for families below the federal poverty line and cap fees for all other families receiving subsidies at 7% of their income.
Under the plan, the subsidy program for families making up to 125% of the state median income — $182,000 for a family of four — would be expanded when future funds become available.
Spilka said the bill is another step in making good on the chamber’s pledge to provide high-quality educational opportunities to the state’s children from birth through adulthood.
The bill would create a matching grant pilot program designed to provide incentives for employers to invest in new early education slots with priority given to projects targeted at families with lower incomes and those who are located in so-called child care deserts.
The bill would also require the cost-sharing fee scale for families participating in the child care subsidy program to be updated every five years, establish a pilot program to support smaller early education and care programs, and increase the maximum number of children that can be served by large family child care programs, similar to programs in New York, California, Illinois, and Maryland.
The bill now heads to the Massachusetts House.
veryGood! (4268)
Related
- Finally, good retirement news! Southwest pilots' plan is a bright spot, experts say
- How businesses are deploying facial recognition
- Meet The Everyday Crypto Investors Caught Up In The FTX Implosion
- Everything We Know About Yellowjackets Season 2
- Biden administration makes final diplomatic push for stability across a turbulent Mideast
- Twitter layoffs begin, sparking a lawsuit and backlash
- Find a new job in 60 days: tech layoffs put immigrant workers on a ticking clock
- Playing Pirate: Looking back on the 'Monkey Island' series after its 'Return'
- Elon Musk's skyrocketing net worth: He's the first person with over $400 billion
- See RHONJ's Margaret Prepare to Confront Teresa and Danielle for Trash-Talking Her
Ranking
- The White House is cracking down on overdraft fees
- Autopsies on corpses linked to Kenya starvation cult reveal missing organs; 133 confirmed dead
- TikToker Jehane Thomas Dead at 30
- Elon Musk says Ye is suspended from Twitter
- Where will Elmo go? HBO moves away from 'Sesame Street'
- Looking to leave Twitter? Here are the social networks seeing new users now
- Racial bias affects media coverage of missing people. A new tool illustrates how
- The new normal of election disinformation
Recommendation
Will the 'Yellowstone' finale be the last episode? What we know about Season 6, spinoffs
Why false claims about Brazil's election are spreading in far-right U.S. circles
See RHONJ's Margaret Prepare to Confront Teresa and Danielle for Trash-Talking Her
Joshua Jackson Gives a Glimpse Into His “Magical” Home Life with Jodie Turner-Smith and Daughter Janie
Residents worried after ceiling cracks appear following reroofing works at Jalan Tenaga HDB blocks
France launches war crime investigation after reporter Arman Soldin killed in Ukraine
Vanderpump Rules' Raquel Leviss Will Attend Season 10 Reunion Amid Tom Sandoval Scandal
Chaos reigns at Twitter as Musk manages 'by whims'