For too many families, child care has become one of the largest expenses in the household budget, and in many cases, families cannot find an available slot at any price. That is not simply a family problem. It is a workforce problem, an affordability problem, an education problem, and an economic development problem.

This is personal for me. When I’m talking about families which struggle with child care, I’m talking about my family. I’m talking about my friends. I’m talking about my colleagues.

I support Massachusetts' goal of moving toward universal access to affordable, high-quality early education and child care. But universal child care cannot simply be a promise we make at the state level. It has to mean building and sustaining enough actual child care capacity in communities like ours for families to use it.

Here in the Berkshires, the challenge is particularly acute. Providers operate on extremely tight margins, early educators are often paid far less than the importance of their work deserves, and rural geography makes it difficult to achieve the economies of scale available in more densely populated parts of Massachusetts. When a classroom closes, an educator leaves the field, or a provider reduces enrollment, there may not be another option five minutes down the road. Families can suddenly find themselves traveling significant distances for care, even going out of state, or are unable to find care at all.

That is why I view child care as essential economic infrastructure.

When parents cannot find reliable care, they reduce their hours, turn down promotions, leave jobs, delay returning to the workforce, or decide that raising a family in our region is simply too difficult. Employers feel that impact through vacancies and turnover. Communities feel it when young families leave. And children lose access to early learning experiences that can shape their success long after they enter kindergarten.

We need an approach that addresses all three sides of the equation: affordability for families, availability of child care slots, and sustainability for providers and educators. Solving only one of those problems will not create the child care system families need.

“Universal” has to mean universal.

Massachusetts has taken important steps toward expanding early education, and I support continuing that work. The Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative, or CPPI, is an important part of that effort. It supports partnerships between school districts, municipalities, educational collaboratives, and early education providers to expand access to high-quality preschool.

But the experience of Northern Berkshire County also demonstrates why statewide policy must be implemented carefully.

As Massachusetts restructures and expands its approach to universal pre-K, Northern Berkshire CPPI programs have faced significant funding reductions. We should be able to expand access to preschool in communities across Massachusetts without destabilizing successful programs that are already serving children and families here.

I support the Governor's goal of expanding universal preschool. I will also be willing to challenge any administration when the implementation of a statewide policy creates unintended consequences for the communities I represent.

Expansion should mean adding capacity, not simply moving it from one part of Massachusetts to another.

If Massachusetts is serious about universal access, our funding decisions have to reflect that commitment. We cannot celebrate expanded access statewide while successful rural programs lose the resources necessary to maintain classrooms, educators, and child care slots.

As State Representative, I will advocate for CPPI funding and implementation policies that recognize the realities of rural communities, protect successful existing partnerships, and ensure Northern Berkshire County is included in, not disadvantaged by, the Commonwealth's expansion of universal pre-K.

Protecting existing programs is only the beginning. We also need to create more child care capacity throughout the district.

That starts with the early education workforce. We cannot promise universal child care without enough qualified educators to staff classrooms. Massachusetts needs to improve compensation, strengthen benefits and career pathways, support professional development, and reduce unnecessary barriers to entering and remaining in the profession. Here in the Berkshires, we should deepen partnerships between providers, our schools, higher education institutions, workforce organizations, and employers to create a stronger pipeline of early educators.

We also need facilities. Expanding child care requires appropriate physical spaces, and renovating or constructing those spaces is expensive. State economic development, education, and capital programs should recognize child care facilities as essential community infrastructure and help providers and communities create the physical capacity necessary to serve more families.

Family child care providers also deserve particular attention. In rural communities where a large center may not be financially viable, home-based and small-scale providers can fill critical gaps. State policy should make it easier for responsible providers to establish, sustain, and appropriately expand these businesses while maintaining strong health, safety, and quality standards.

Employers can be part of the solution as well. Businesses throughout the Berkshires regularly struggle to recruit and retain workers, and child care availability is part of that challenge. Employer-supported child care, flexible scheduling, partnerships with existing providers, and public-private investment in new capacity should all be part of our regional strategy. State government can help catalyze these partnerships, particularly where several employers could collaborate to support shared child care capacity.

Ultimately, we need child care policy that works in rural Massachusetts. The realities of delivering child care in Savoy, Florida, or Cheshire are different from delivering it in Boston or Cambridge.

Rural providers often serve smaller populations across larger geographic areas. Families may travel farther for care. Providers may struggle to maintain enrollment levels necessary to support operations while still being the only practical option available to families in an entire area.

A statewide commitment to universal child care therefore needs a specific rural strategy.

Funding formulas should recognize the cost of maintaining capacity, not simply the number of children currently occupying seats. Programs should support transportation and nontraditional hours where those are barriers. Smaller providers should have access to technical assistance and capital. And state agencies should evaluate proposed policy changes for their impact on rural child care capacity before those changes are implemented.

Universal access should not depend on population density or ZIP code. As your State Representative I will work to:

• Protect Northern Berkshire CPPI programs and advocate for funding structures that do not undermine successful existing early education partnerships as Massachusetts expands universal pre-K.
• Expand affordable child care capacity so families have both financial assistance and an actual provider with an available space.
• Strengthen the early education workforce through better compensation, career pathways, professional development, and recruitment and retention strategies.
• Create a rural child care strategy that recognizes the fundamentally different economics of providing care in less densely populated communities.
• Invest in child care facilities and treat the creation and preservation of child care slots as economic and community infrastructure.
• Support family child care providers as an important part of the solution, particularly in smaller and rural communities.
• Build employer-provider partnerships that allow businesses, providers, municipalities, and community organizations to jointly expand capacity.
• Protect families from excessive child care costs while ensuring reimbursement rates allow providers to sustainably deliver high-quality care.
• Connect early education to our broader education system so children enter kindergarten prepared to succeed and families experience a more seamless transition between early education and public school.

The goal is straightforward: having a child should not force a parent to choose between a career and their family, and finding quality child care should not depend on your ZIP code. If Massachusetts wants to be the best state in the country to raise a family, universal child care cannot remain an aspiration. We have to build, and sustain, the system necessary to make it real.