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Boston's Morning Newsletter
4 recommendations to fix the child care worker problem in Mass.
Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
While you can leave the winter puffer at home, you might want to grab a rain jacket — and charge your phone. Eversource and National Grid are warning about the potential for power outages from today’s storm, with wind gusts up to 50 mph expected across the region.
Now, to the news:
“The workforce behind the workforce": Everyone knows how prohibitively expensive child care is in Massachusetts. But as WBUR’s Max Larkin reports, a new study shows the sector has another growing problem: Relatively few young people want to enter the field. Max writes that the findings — presented yesterday at The Boston Foundation as part of a joint effort by the city’s Office of Early Childhood and several nonprofits — paint a picture of “an early education ecosystem that is perilously dependent on underpaid, overworked and aging educators.” State officials say that’s a problem for Massachusetts’ competitiveness. So, what can be done? Here are the study’s four recommendations:
- More (guaranteed) long-term money: Child care workers earn less than $40,000 a year on average, according to the report. While Gov. Maura Healey’s administration has worked to increase wages through state “C3” grants in the budget, uncertainty about the annual renewal of this funding by state lawmakers makes it difficult for centers to make long-term investments in wages. The report suggests codifying that money into law and increasing it over time.
- Defining the career path of an early educator: According to the report, a primary reason many leave the field is because they see limited opportunities to advance in their role. The recommendation: More investment at the city and state level to support center-based and family care workers who want to pursue higher education or apprenticeships, with the goal of becoming credentialed educators, administrators or center directors.
- More data: The report also calls on the state’s Department of Early Education and Care to collect “deeper educator-level data via a state-wide registry” to better understand the demographics and experiences of child care workers over time.
- More help: While the report says local child care center workers are “fortunate” to have city and state governments making significant investments to shore up the sector, it also finds that more federal funding is “imperative” to support long-term living wages.
Just in: Meanwhile, Boston officials are scrapping plans to move the John D. O’Bryant School of Math and Science from Roxbury to West Roxbury, following pushback from some parents and educators. Max has more here on the surprise development, which will keep the O’Bryant school in its current location for the immediate future.
- Go deeper: Mayor Michelle Wu and others had argued the O’Bryant school is being held back by the small size of its current building in the Madison Park complex and that the larger West Roxbury facility would allow it to expand by adding programs. However, many parents expressed concern about the longer commutes and other impacts of moving the diverse school seven miles away to a majority-white neighborhood.
Head ups: Avoid driving through the "Mass. and Cass" area this morning, if possible. Boston police have shut down traffic in both directions near Melnea Cass Boulevard and Hampden Street, as they investigate a fatal crash at the intersection.
The fallout continues: Milton is now officially facing a lawsuit from Attorney General Andrea Campbell over the town’s noncompliance with the MBTA Communities law. Campbell is asking the Supreme Judicial Court to force Milton to comply with the law, which requires cities and towns to zone for multi-family housing near MBTA stops.
- Campbell said she hopes the lawsuit sends a message, as other towns, like Wrentham, consider following Milton’s example.
Blooper Tuesday: Voters in Connecticut’s biggest city once again trudged back the polls yesterday for a do-over in their messy, marred mayoral election. However, the results were the same: Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim defeated fellow Democrat John Gomes.
- The do-over election marked the fourth-straight time Ganim beat Gomes in the race — including the September primary that was voided due to ballot-stuffing allegations, a nullified general election in November and a rerun primary last month.
