A lack of affordable child care should not prevent anyone from starting a new business, from taking a new job, or from moving to a rural community. And it certainly should not be a barrier to a child’s development or to their later success.
Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.
To increase the availability of child care and early childhood education across Maine, as part of my Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan, we are investing $25 million in federal American Rescue funds to allow Maine communities to renovate, to expand, or to build new child care facilities and expand public pre-K educational programs.
Earlier this week, I visited one of the facilities that is directly benefitting from these funds back in my hometown at the University of Maine Farmington.
With $1 million from the Jobs Plan, UMF will renovate a former call center and create at least 20 new slots for high-quality child care and increase enrollment in their early childhood education programs by at least 20 percent.
That means, in a little while, at least 20 more Maine children will have a nurturing, safe place to develop foundational skills while their parents are at work.
This also means that more college students will get the skills they need to build life-long, good-paying careers as child care workers, especially in rural Maine where the need is so great. These students will become the workforce behind our workforce.
And when these students graduate, Speaker Ryan Fecteau and I want to make sure they are getting paid a good wage.
My Administration has already been providing $200 monthly stipends to more than 6,600 child care workers to encourage them to work in Maine’s child care system, as part of federally funded grants that help child care providers cover the costs related to COVID-19.
We began distributing these funds in September 2021. And we were one of the first states in the nation to deliver this critical workforce support.
When the Federal money stops, we should be there to make sure that those child care workers continue to receive a good wage.
That’s why in my State of the State Address last week, I proposed more than $12 million to increase pay for child care workers and early childhood educators - in line with legislation proposed by Speaker Fecteau.
That funding will allow people to build life-long, good-paying careers in our child care workforce. It will also allow existing child care facilities to accept more children, expanding access to families across the state of Maine.
I hope the Legislature will pass this funding.
This week’s investment in Farmington builds on our other efforts to expand access to affordable, high-quality child care. We are also using other Federal American Rescue funds in our Child Care Plan for Maine to help the child care system improve over the long term.
You know, I was lucky. My parents both worked full time, but I had the advantage of early childhood education, through the local university campus.
I think every parent should have the peace of mind that comes with knowing that their child can learn and grow in a safe place while they are at work. Expanding access to affordable child care and early learning facilities like this one in Farmington will keep parents in the workforce, it’ll strengthen our economy, and it’ll prepare our children for a bright and successful future.
The Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan and the American Rescue Plan make the biggest investment in child care Maine has seen in decades. There is always more to be done – and we are doing it.
I look forward to working with the Legislature to make that important investment. And together we can make sure that working families have everything they need to provide healthy, safe and high quality child care and education for their kids that allows them to go to work, bring home a paycheck, and strengthen our economy.
This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.