Massachusetts faces persistent challenges in providing affordable, high-quality day care for families with young children, according to recent analysis of the state’s early childhood education system. Despite growing demand, the availability, quality, and cost of child care remain significant barriers for many parents.

Aubrey Harnett, a Boston resident, exemplifies the difficulty of securing reliable care. She began seeking day care during her pregnancy, contacting dozens of providers without success. Even after her son was born, she struggled to find a suitable spot. When a place finally opened at a center near her workplace in the Longwood Medical Area, the annual cost reached $36,000, a figure that remained prohibitive even with employer subsidies. To manage expenses, Harnett relied on family support and reduced her own work hours to maintain subsidy eligibility.

The shortage of available child-care slots is stark: formal programs serve only about 53 percent of Massachusetts children under age five. This capacity gap forces families onto wait lists, while low wages for early educators contribute to high turnover and inconsistent care quality. Meanwhile, the median cost for full-time early care ranges from $16,000 for preschoolers to $25,000 for infants, creating an affordability barrier that affects many families.

Experts argue that private markets alone cannot meet the demand for high-quality child care because its true cost exceeds what most families can pay. The consensus among child-care advocates is that government involvement is essential to expanding access and improving quality.

Despite these challenges, state spending on early childhood programs remains relatively low, about $4,000 per child under five annually, compared to $23,000 for school-age children. Various factors contribute to this shortfall, including competing budget priorities and the complex nature of early education policy. Unlike K-12 education, which has a clear goal of universal free access, early childhood care lacks an agreed-upon policy destination, complicating state efforts.

To better understand parental preferences, a survey of over 1,000 Massachusetts mothers found that although only 53 percent currently use formal child care, nearly 90 percent would choose it if affordable, and around two-thirds of those using formal care would increase their hours absent cost barriers. This indicates widespread demand for expanded access to licensed child-care services.

Massachusetts has made progress in recent years, increasing early education funding by more than 50 percent in inflation-adjusted terms and growing both provider capacity and family assistance together. However, gaps remain in capacity, quality, and affordability.

Addressing the quality gap is seen as a priority. Research from other jurisdictions shows that expanding child-care availability without improving quality can be detrimental to children’s development. Raising wages for early educators is viewed as a foundational step, with proposals calling for an increase of $6 per hour to align pay with kindergarten teachers’ salaries. Higher wages could reduce turnover and support professional development, as well as enable centers to operate at full licensed capacity.

To tackle the capacity gap, experts recommend subsidizing facility upgrades and providing temporary financial support to new classrooms facing underenrollment, aiming to add 7,500 slots annually. This expansion could increase access to formal child care to 65 percent of children under five within five years.

On affordability, policymakers currently target subsidies to families earning less than half the state median income, but existing programs meet only about half of that demand. Expanding subsidies to cover all eligible families is seen as essential.

Implementing these recommendations over five years would require an estimated $784 million in the first year, rising to $1.5 billion by year five. Factoring in increased tax revenue from higher parental employment, the net cost averages around $880 million annually, representing about 1.3 percent of Massachusetts’ budget.

Proponents argue that investing in early childhood care is crucial not only for children’s development but also for enabling parents to work and advance their careers, benefiting the state’s workforce and economy. A coordinated expansion of funding, capacity, and quality could transform Massachusetts’s early education system into a key driver of long-term economic growth.