High-quality child care can set a child up for success in school and life. It’s vital for parents. And when child-care options were limited during COVID-19 lockdowns and employees had to make do, employers realized how crucial child care is for them, too.
“Child care is a lynchpin to the health and well-being not only of families … but it’s essential to everything we do as a state,” Governor Maura Healey said at a Tuesday press conference in Malden, where she announced a plan to expand child-care access.
Healey’s plan, which she also touted in her State of the Commonwealth address, provides important recognition that child care in Massachusetts must be more affordable and accessible.
Advertisement
Right now, Massachusetts has the dubious distinction of the nation’s highest child-care costs — if parents can find a spot at all. That’s a problem for parents with an infant and a problem for parents with an older child ready for an educational pre-K program.
Healey would increase eligibility for child-care financial assistance and give money directly to child-care providers. Her goal of giving every Gateway City 4-year-old access to free or subsidized prekindergarten by the end of 2026 is a noble one and could become a template to expand efforts statewide.
But as with any ambitious proposal, the devil will be in the details, which lawmakers will have to carefully scrutinize. In implementing universal pre-K, Healey will have to ensure that programs have enough capacity to meet the increased demand in a high-quality way and that the programs offered meet the needs of families who seek to use them. The fine print of the Healey administration’s vision would make significant changes to — and eliminate some flexibility in — a grant program that currently subsidizes several cities’ early education programs.
Advertisement
A child-care center in Massachusetts costs an average of $19,961 annually for a toddler, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The state provides subsidies to families earning less than 50 percent of the state median income, meaning a family of three earning less than $61,106 is currently eligible. Healey’s proposal would expand eligibility to families earning 85 percent of the state median income, making a family of three earning $103,880 eligible. The proposal would help an estimated 4,000 additional families next year at a cost of $75 million. (The amount of aid depends on family income and size.)
But increasing subsidies only helps if there is enough money and enough programs to accept these children. The state child-care assistance program today has a waiting list of around 15,000 families.
At Healey’s press conference, Kerry Bryant, a communications professional, said she applied to seven child-care programs while pregnant. Her child only got into one, at a YMCA, before her maternity leave ended. The situation can be harder for families with subsidies since not all providers accept the state payments.
The state is taking steps to expand capacity, and policy makers will have to monitor whether these are sufficient. The Board of Early Education and Care recently increased subsidy rates, giving providers an estimated $65 million more annually, which should encourage more providers to accept subsidies.
Healey’s proposal to spend $475 million extending the Commonwealth Cares for Children grants through fiscal 2025 could also address capacity. These grants, distributed to all child-care providers through a formula, were started to stabilize providers during the pandemic. In a 2023 survey conducted by the Department of Early Education and Care, 1,161 providers with 20,800 seats said they would close without C3 grants. Providers said grants helped them retain staff and delay tuition increases. The licensed capacity of the child-care system now exceeds pre-pandemic, although some spots are unused because of staff vacancies. Some schools are also under-enrolled, suggesting a mismatch between the type and location of care available and parent need.
Advertisement
Ideally, C3 grants would become permanent so providers could rely on them.
The increase in subsidies would help a broad range of parents and children of different ages. The most headline-catching part of Healey’s proposal, though, is much more targeted. She also wants to provide free or subsidized prekindergarten for all Gateway City 4-year-olds, which Healey describes as a first step toward universal statewide pre-K. As the name implies, pre-K is meant to be educational, preparing young children to enter the classroom.
To accomplish this, Healey intends to modify the existing Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative, which is now operating in 21 cities (including 12 Gateway Cities), and expand it to the remaining 14 Gateway Cities.
Currently, the $20.5 million program offers grants for public school districts to partner with private day-care providers to improve preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds. Depending on the district, that can mean expanding hours, adding seats, offering subsidies, improving special education, or conducting professional development.
Advertisement
According to state education officials, the goal of the revised program would be for the state to pay for pre-K for all Gateway City 4-year-olds regardless of family income for a six-hour school day during the school year. Aftercare or summer care would be paid for by the family or the school district, if the district chooses to use local money. Programs would be required to use an evidence-based curriculum and offer special education services.
The goal would be to enroll an additional 5,700 Gateway City 4-year-olds by 2026, for a total of 23,000 children in these programs. The cost is estimated at $38.7 million in fiscal 2025 and likely more in future years.
Lawmakers will have to consider whether this is the best model. Other models might, for example, give districts more flexibility in using state money to pay for different hours or subsidies, since most private providers offer full-day, full-year care.
Lawmakers will also have to consider whether Gateway Cities are the right population to start with. Healey’s approach would reach many poor children who tend to have worse educational outcomes. But it excludes other needy communities like rural Western Massachusetts and Cape Cod that have too few child-care providers for their population.
Healey also signed an executive order creating a task force to examine additional ways to reduce costs, increase capacity, and improve the quality of child care and early education, including by training new workers. That is an important recognition that while her proposals are a strong first step, they’re only that — a first step.
Advertisement
Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us @GlobeOpinion.
