Today, the Joint Committee on Education held its hearing on the Common Start bill. Read our testimony below — and find out how to take action at progressivemass.com/common-start-2021.
Testimony of Progressive Massachusetts in support of H.605 and S.2362: An Act providing affordable and accessible high quality early education and care to promote child development and well-being and support the economy in the Commonwealth
October 23, 2021
Chairman Lewis, Chairwoman Peisch, and Members of the Joint Committee on Education:
My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the chair of the Issues Committee of Progressive Massachusetts. Progressive Massachusetts is a statewide grassroots advocacy organization that fights for a more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic Massachusetts. We are urging you to give a favorable report to H.605 and S.362: An Act providing affordable and accessible high quality early education and care to promote child development and well-being and support the economy in the Commonwealth, jointly known as the Common Start bill.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the weakness of our child care infrastructure, but families were already struggling before. According to the Economic Policy Institute, Massachusetts has the most expensive infant care in the country, after the District of Columbia, with the annual cost for infant care or child care of a four-year-old higher than that of college tuition. [1] The $20,913 average annual cost of child care and $15,095 average annual cost for care for a four-year-old is more than half what a minimum wage worker would earn in a year. These costs are prohibitively expensive for low- and middle-income families, who are forced to choose between making ends meet and saving for the future on one hand or affording child care on the other.
The Common Start bill will lift up Massachusetts families by providing child care and early education that is affordable for everyone. It is most essential to lower-income families, but it will also aid middle-income families who must cope with the highest cost child care in the nation. We need the quarter million workers who have left the workforce to return to their jobs so they can have income stability and we need them employed for our economy to prosper.
Investments in child care and early education are not only good for the economic security of parents: they are also highly beneficial for children. High-quality early education programs get results. Children benefit with enhanced resiliency and employment opportunities over their lifetimes. Providing children with high-quality early education and child care is one of the most effective ways to further a child’s success in grades K-12 and beyond.
With resources coming in from the federal government through the American Recovery Plan, we have an opportunity to build a child care and early education infrastructure worthy of our Commonwealth. We urge you to take it and to pass the Common Start legislation.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Cohn
Chair, Issues Committee
Progressive Massachusetts
[1] https://www.epi.org/child-care-costs-in-the-united-states/#/MA
