The State House is seeing a flurry of activity as the 2021-2022 legislative session winds down.
On Monday the Legislature passed a state budget with major investments in early education and care.
Legislators continue their work this week to finalize an economic development bill that could include additional funding for early education.
Early education and care legislation is still pending, awaiting action in the House.
On July 7, 2022, the Massachusetts Senate took a bold step forward by voting unanimously to pass An Act to expand access to high-quality, affordable early education and care (S.2973). But to become law, it will also need to be approved by the House before the end of this month.
The Common Start Coalition continues to lead advocacy for the bill’s passage. Visit Common Start for the latest advocacy updates. (Strategies for Children serves on the Common Start steering committee). Let your state representative know about the Senate bill, and encourage them to pass a similar bill in the House.
This promising bill provides a strong framework for tackling many of the persistent challenges that the field faced long before the pandemic started.
The bill would put Massachusetts on a path toward establishing a system of affordable and high-quality early education and care for families. The bill also calls for providing more support for early educators.
Senate President Karen Spilka provides details here.
The need is great. As Mark Reilly, the Vice President of Policy & Government Relations at Jumpstart, points out, “Massachusetts is 40th in the nation in state investment in early education and we are pleased to see that the Legislature is poised to drive the state up those rankings.”
Massachusetts can build on the pending investments in the state budget by passing a historic bill that charts a long-term course for bolstering our early education and care system.
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