Childcare Matters: Early Education Care Policy and Reform

Roman summarized the goal of getting child care right: “Children get high-quality care, and their parents go back to work confident in that; those parents earn money and pay taxes, and the providers thrive too.” She introduced Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka, who gave an overview of the legislature’s successes and priorities on early education-related issues and the importance of the state’s Latino population.

Recent successes include the offering of free community college for current and future early childhood educators, making the COVID-era Commonwealth Cares for Children grant program permanent, and codifying free school meals for K–12. “But if we wait for the school years, it’s too late,” she said. “Research bears out that stable early education yields long-term benefits, from better communication skills to academic achievement and greater lifetime earnings.” She reiterated Roman’s point that we can’t accept the status quo but must work to improve child-care affordability for families, pay early educators enough, and ensure quality.

These changes are important for Latinos both as parents of young children and as a significant part of the early education workforce. Massachusetts must improve the system, Spilka said, for the health of the Commonwealth. “Latinos are the youngest, largest, and fastest-growing community of color in Massachusetts,” she noted. Ensuring affordability and opportunity in the child-care sector will be key to making the state livable. “We want you. We need you to find a home here.” She spoke of upcoming legislation, including the possibility of early education and care businesses being included in the redefinition of microbusinesses and thus eligible for new grants, and urged people to get involved: “Your voice matters.”

But there has been significant change. “We finally recognized that zero-to-five window of opportunity is unique and can’t be reclaimed. But [until the pandemic] we hadn’t noted the multigenerational impact of it…. Throughout American history, it’s been, ‘That’s a family issue; solve it on your own.’ Now there’s a recognition there’s a link between child care and the ability of adults to participate in the labor force.”

Dora Aguilar, Founder/Owner of Bright Beginners bilingual daycare, agreed: Her own struggles trying to work and study and find care for her child inspired her to open a family child-care business. She loves the work, and her previous experience as a teacher in Guatemala served her well, but she was a perfect example of an early ed trend: providers who are great at child care but don’t have the business skills or experience to scale their enterprise. As she said, “It’s hard to find organizations that can help you learn things like administration and bookkeeping and so on.” She participates in Amplify Latinx programs and aims to expand her business to a child-care center and serve more families.

Annemarie Castro, Program Director of IBA Early Education, discussed the biggest barriers to providing quality care in the Latino community. Costs and transportation are always big ones, she said. “But there’s a real challenge with social-emotional issues post-COVID. It’s a huge undertaking to work with families on mental health needs, related financial constraints, or neurodivergent learners and how to support them.”

Roman summed it up: “We have to look at child care in a holistic way. It’s not just about its being unaffordable. It’s not just about teacher burnout. It’s not just about the limits on the workers and the economy. If we don’t focus on making sure our growing Latino population is served in a way that is affordable and equitable, we won’t move forward.”