One of the biggest parts of the legislative spending package signed by Gov. Janet Mills this week added a lot more money for child care. It comes as many providers still report long waitlists and staff turnover, with many parents struggling to afford tuition.
For more on what the latest measure could mean for the industry, Maine Public's Robbie Feinberg spoke with Jennifer Vachon, the director of the Parkside Children's Learning Center in Bangor.
Vachon says the pandemic forced her to reshape the business. She says her staff is far smaller, but better paid, compared to a few years ago. And she says despite more state and federal funding, making the numbers work every month is still a challenge.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Vachon: Now it's a very different world where I am constantly looking at our account, I am constantly monitoring it. There have been, you know, times where I'm a little bit on pins and needles. I'm not sure if this is going to work out. And that part, those moments are the times that really make it hard because, again, I have such high standards for what I expect Monday through Friday to be like here,
Feinberg: I want to turn to the budget agreement that was reached as well in the Legislature here. So first, there was a provision to double the monthly salary stipend for child care workers from $200 to $400. Two hundred dollars doesn't necessarily sound like a huge change, but when you look at your staff members, and what you are paying them, what does that extra funding mean for you?
I think that the $200 stipend, it almost felt like there was this recognition to all of our staff members that you are important, you are valued by a state level, and that we want to show this gratitude by, you know, the stipend piece of it. What it did do, and I'm assuming a part of this is, is that I haven't lost a staff member for a year. So when we're talking about this piece around advertising, and the amount of work that it takes to hire-on staff members, and then again, that high quality standard piece of it, that was something that was a big noticeable difference.
The other piece of this budget agreement is around the state's child care subsidy program. Now people earning up to 125% of the state's median income will be eligible for this. Can you explain how exactly does the subsidy program work for a center like yours, and what will this expansion mean for families?
Yeah, so right now, to be honest with you, Robbie, I don't have any children that are under the subsidized care program. And there's a couple of reasons for that. The biggest one is that I was going to lose money within that program. My budget that I talked about earlier, is really funded so that I have to have some predictability within my tuition. And right now, with all the cost increases that are upon our program, or affecting our program, I needed to make sure that I met those expectations. My hope is, is that I can look into, you know, expanding and looking into the child subsidy care program, for sure.
When you look at the cost of child care in general, for parents, do you think this will make a big difference? Do you have parents who, it stands out to you, where this can make a big difference for them?
Yeah, I had a person call in, they had a job all set up, all set up, and they just needed child care for their toddler, and they have called everybody from Corinna all the way down to Bangor, and no one had an opening for them. And so, you know, I hope that this will help to provide that that care for sure.
I wonder with that as well, where we still see these such long wait lists for care, what do you think it will take for us to boost just the amount of child care slots? Is this going to make much of a difference in cutting down those wait lists?
Well, I don't think it's going to do it on its own. But I think the package as a collaborative whole has a great deal of push to change the field itself. And you know, I also think, Governor Mills also put money aside so that anyone who wanted to expand their licensing capacity or open up a new center would also receive funding. So I feel like you know, again, one piece of that bill may not be the answer, but I think that this is definitely a really great start to change.
