Hundreds of child care workers and their supporters protest Tuesday against proposed cuts to a stipend program that they say has been critical to stabilizing the industry. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

A Maine legislative committee has removed proposed cuts to three child care-related programs from the state’s next two-year budget, including a stipend for early childhood workers, amid widespread protest from industry employees.

The stipend program provides an extra $240 to $540 a month to child care workers in Maine, depending on experience and education. The stipends began in 2021 at $200 and were initially funded by federal COVID-19 money.

In 2022, Gov. Janet Mills integrated the stipend into the state budget. And last year, the Legislature doubled the stipend amounts, which Mills criticized as unsustainable. In her proposed biennial budget, she returned the supplement program to its 2022 funding level of $15 million.

But child care workers have been widely opposed to the cuts, and hundreds went on strike Tuesday to gather in the State House rotunda in protest. Day care workers and operators say the stipend has allowed the industry to stabilize after several years of understaffing and retention issues. The same workers opposed other cuts to Head Start and to a new program that covered child care tuition for workers in the industry.

The Health and Human Services Committee on Wednesday voted 10-3 to recommend removing the stipend cut from the budget.

“The additions were put on last year, and it’s been a really successful workforce retention initiative from the numbers that I’ve seen. Our child care professionals, essentially what they are is the workforce behind the workforce,” said Sen. Henry Ingwersen, D-York, the committee’s chair. “They’re essential to our economy if it’s going to thrive, we’ve seen that. Yet they remain — even with this program, as it was this year, as it currently is — some of the lowest-paid workers in our state.”

Committee members characterized the line item as one of the most difficult proposed cuts they had to tackle. Rep. Lucien Daigle, R-Fort Kent, said the level of public engagement on the issue was enormous, from both child care industry employees and working people across Maine.

The committee vote was a key step in the process, but not the final one. Its recommendations will be sent to the Legislature’s Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee, which is using Mills’ proposal and input from committees to build a comprehensive budget proposal for the two years beginning July 1.

OTHER CUTS REMOVED

Juniper Gancsos, 5, holds a sign Tuesday at the Maine State House during a rally with hundreds of child care workers and their supporters to protest proposed cuts to a stipend program. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

The committee also rejected cuts to two other child care industry programs. The first was to Head Start, the federal program that provides services for low-income children from birth to age 5. The cut would have reduced program funding by $3.6 million — an investment the Legislature made last year on top of the $1.4 million in annual state funding. 

“Head Start is primarily a federally funded program and Maine is one of a minority of states that provides a state appropriation to supplement federal funding,” according to an administrative document explaining the proposed cuts.

The second cut was to the $2.5 million Child Care Employment Award Program, established last year to help child care workers pay for day care tuition for their own children, which the Mills administration described as redundant.

“The program has proven to be mostly duplicative, as many workers enrolled in the program already qualify for assistance paying for child care through Maine’s Child Care Affordability Program,” the document reads.

Committee members recommended to remove both of those cuts from the budget by a vote of 10-3.

The House and Senate can still make changes on the floor when the budget comes up for final votes in June.

Rep. Amanda Collamore, R-Pittsfield, talks to hundreds of child care workers and their supporters during a protest over proposed cuts to a child care stipend program. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

‘OUR VOICES HEARD’

Heather Marden, co-executive director of the Maine Association for the Education of Young Children, was in the room when the committee voted and said the decision was a testament to the power of turning out and taking bold moves, referring to the more than 300 child care workers who protested Tuesday at the State House.

“What happened yesterday was just beautiful and just a strong show of what it means to come together collectively and prove that value and remind folks of the work that’s being done every day,” she said Wednesday.

Saving the stipend is a great first step, Marden said, but the industry is still barely stabilized. Looking forward, she said the state will need to recognize the return on investment that funding child care provides and look to private industry partnerships.

“This is never a field that’s going to be dominated by technology. We will always need humans to do this caring work, and we need good, stable humans to do this caring work,” she said. “So investing in their wages, their benefits, being able to invest in quality programing for children, it’s just going to benefit us all in the end.”

Sara Perrigo, a program director at Heidi’s House Child Care in Scarborough, said the center closed Tuesday for the strike so 21 staff members could travel to Augusta to protest.

“We were really happy to be a part of that and make our voices heard,” Perrigo said Wednesday. After the vote, she said it felt like their turnout made a difference.

Senate President Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick, talks to the media, as well as hundreds of child care workers and their supporters, on Tuesday. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Heidi’s House, like so many day care facilities in Maine, struggled with severe understaffing during the pandemic that it still hasn’t fully made up. Perrigo said the center still has one classroom closed, shortened hours and about 10 fewer staff members than it did before the pandemic.

Perrigo said the stipend went along way in helping retain existing staff but hasn’t necessarily brought new people in to the industry. She said there’s still work to be done.

“It has been wonderful for retention, but not quite enough still,” she said.

Perrigo is worried that many people still don’t understand the business model of day cares. She said if centers want to pay staff more, they have to raise tuition for families, which is why state support like the stipend is so critical.