Maine AFL-CIO, Early Childhood Educators Oppose Gov. Mills’ Cuts to Child Care

PHOTO: Sarah Bigney McCabe of the Maine AFL-CIO speaks against child care cuts at a press conference on Monday.

The Maine AFL-CIO joined early childhood educators and providers on Monday to oppose Governor Janet Mills’ proposed cuts to child care programs and workers’ wages at a public hearing before the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee.

The Governor’s biennial budget (LD 210) proposes to reduce wage subsidies for child care workers by $1.5 million, cut tuition assistance for families, slash Head Start programs by $3.6 million and eliminate a program that helps low-paid child care educators cover the costs of child care for their own children.

Last year, the Maine Legislature raised the income threshold for the Child Care Affordability Program which has allowed many more families to qualify for help paying for child care. The budget funded wage supplements to help child care providers recruit and retain employees after half of the state’s childcare providers closed their doors during the coronavirus pandemic. The Governor’s proposed budget reverses those changes.

The Maine Association for the Education of Young Children estimates that the governor’s cuts to child care workers’ wage subsidies would reduce wages by $2000 a year, from $16.40/hr. (just over $34,000 annually) to $15.15/hr. (or $31,500 annually).

Postal worker Kevin Ready of Lewiston (APWU 458) testified at the hearing that when he and is wife had their second child two years ago she made the difficult decision to stay home and take care of the children full-time for the first couple years in part because of the high cost of child care. He urged the committee to strengthen the subsidy program instead of cutting it so that more families like his can qualify.

“When we heard about the childcare subsidy last year, and found that we were within the income limits, we quickly applied and began touring childcare facilities, and my wife started looking for work again,” said Ready. “Unfortunately, we missed the requirement that both parents must already be employed to qualify for the subsidy. My wife can’t work without finding daycare for our son, and we can’t afford daycare as it stands. We’ll also be on a waitlist for both the subsidy and the childcare itself, once we do manage to apply.”

The Maine AFL-CIO provided several comments to the committee from union nurses, shipbuilders, firefighters, teachers and others describing their struggles finding and paying for childcare.

“We are hoping we will be able to send our next child there but haven't gotten confirmation that there is room for them come fall. The cost of childcare with one child is almost as much as I make, working full time as a teacher,” a teacher wrote. “The thought of adding the cost of a second child is still something we are processing. I do not want to stop working but the cost is almost prohibitive. I want our daughter's teachers to get paid well but I also want it to be affordable for us.”

Maine AFL-CIO Organizing Director Sarah Bigney McCabe, who wasn’t able to find a child care spot for her son until he was 15 months, described how workers are “living paycheck to paycheck simply to pay for child care so they can afford to go to work. Parents are leaving the workforce altogether. Families are deciding not to have more children because they know they cannot find or afford child care.”