Mainers Urge Golden To Fight For Childcare Funding In Budget Reconciliation Bill

By Evan Popp, Maine Beacon:

Volunteers and organizers delivered a list of demands to U.S. Rep. Jared Golden’s offices on Tuesday, urging the Maine Democrat to push for significant investments in families and childcare workers within the upcoming federal budget reconciliation package.

The event, put together by Maine People’s Alliance (of which Beacon is a project), featured deliveries at Golden’s Lewiston and Bangor offices. Participants asked Golden to fight within the budget bill for a base living wage for early care and education workers, guaranteed childcare, and initiatives to reduce the cost of childcare.

The event comes as Congress is working on the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill, which would enact large parts of President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda. The legislation is still being drafted but is expected to include a significant expansion of the social safety net in the U.S. paid for by raising taxes on the wealthy. Golden has not said whether he will support the budget reconciliation bill. But he was part of a group of centrist House Democrats who expressed qualms about moving forward with the legislation before an infrastructure bill gets voted on.

In addition to increasing wages for child care workers and guaranteeing care for families, advocates hope the budget bill will make preschool available for three and four year olds and make permanent the expanded child tax credit that some economists have estimated could cut child poverty in half.

“Funding for child care is really essential,” said Shoshona Currier, a Lewiston resident and parent who participated in the event. “I think people don’t quite realize what that expense is, how suddenly that expense can come up, and how underpaid the people we expect to take care of our most precious people … really are. I think that is an essential part of this budget.”

Maine People’s Alliance member Jason Trahan of Lewiston, who also participated in Tuesday’s delivery, added in a news release that “the workers who take care of our kids when they’re young are heroes.”

“We should treat them like we value them by paying them a decent wage,” Trahan said. “And we should treat families like we value them by making childcare affordable. No one should have to struggle to pay for childcare or have to choose to leave their kids in unsafe conditions so they can go out and earn a living. This system is broken. Let’s fix it.”

Accessing childcare is a struggle for many Maine families, with costs high and wages for childcare workers often low. Rob Laraway, an organizer with Maine People’s Alliance who was at the event at Golden’s office in Bangor, said the reconciliation package represents a chance to overhaul that system.

“I grew up in poverty and I’ve seen how much of a struggle it is to find and pay for childcare,” Laraway said. “It’s all part of a broken system that underpays the highly-qualified people who care for kids, while putting good care out of reach for so many families — especially low-income people and people of color. We have a chance to address this, right now. And we should.”

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