“With this year’s budget, state lawmakers will codify nearly half a billion dollars more in funding for child care providers than in the pre-pandemic era.
“Massachusetts spun up a program known as C3 — Commonwealth Cares for Children — using federal pandemic relief dollars in 2021. It created an entirely new way of subsidizing child care in Massachusetts: providing direct grants to child care facilities to help with operational costs. Now, 9 in 10 providers take those grants to offset costs.And for this fiscal year, lawmakers are setting aside $475 million to support it.
“ ‘It signals this marriage of a financial and a policy commitment to a program that was a major change and augmentation to our early education system back a few years ago,’ said Doug Howgate, the presidentof Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. ‘That’s a big deal.’
Surveys show, without the C3 funding, more than 20,000 child care seats would disappear across Massachusetts. But that federal funding has dried up. Last year, state legislators allocated one-time funding to fill that gap.
This year, the proposal — now on Gov. Maura Healey’s desk — will make it permanent as part of the annual budget.
It’s a major policy shift, but not one that’s likely to be felt on the ground. Swapping in one source of funding for another largely means that things will be holding steady.
Advocates with the Common Start Coalition — organizations across the state that have banded together to push for more affordable and equitable early education — applauded the move last week.
“ ‘Making the state’s C3 operational grant program for providers permanent will provide lasting support to Massachusetts’ early education and child care programs, allowing them to invest in educator compensation and increase their capacity to serve more children, while avoiding major cost increases for families,’ Common Start Coalition Director Deb Fastino wrote in a statement.”
— “Mass. lawmakers step up child care funding with $1.5 billion proposal,” by Hannah Reale, GBH, July 24, 2024