Latest news with #YouthandFamily
The Spinoff
13 hours ago
- Politics
- The Spinoff
Kerrin Leoni wants to be the next mayor of Auckland. Does she have a chance?
From Mount Roskill to Waiheke to London and back, Whau ward councillor Kerrin Leoni explains her path to politics, what she's learned from Wayne Brown and why she's making a bold bid to take his job. 'Isn't he funny?' says councillor Kerrin Leoni. She's talking about current Auckland mayor Wayne Brown, who has just mockingly told a reporter he won't be giving him any comments as the governing body meeting breaks for lunch. Leoni laughs as she tucks into one of the rolls offered around. This morning has been spent in the council chambers at Auckland Town Hall, discussing budget appropriations and the year ahead. Across the road at the food court, Leoni sits amid the lunchtime rush, standing out in a multicoloured floral blazer, red lipstick and a large pounamu around her neck. Her hair is pulled back in a tight bun, gold ball earrings dangling from her ears as she tucks into a pho – the roll was seemingly just a ratepayer-funded entree, which few would blame Leoni for taking advantage of. 'I think the council has had a certain type of leadership for a long time, and we need new leadership to get more Aucklanders excited about what happens with council,' says the 44-year-old first-term Whau ward councillor between spoonfuls of broth. She has a calm, assured presence: calculated and refined, warm yet cautious. She's undergone media training for her mayoral campaign in the lead-up to the October election, and it shows. Every response is carefully considered, revealing just enough, never too much. It makes her hard to read. Born and raised in Auckland, Leoni spent her early years in the suburb of Mount Roskill with her grandmother. Later, she moved to Waiheke Island to live with her grandfather and uncle and attended Waiheke High School. For her final year of secondary school, she went to Louisiana in the deep south of the United States, where she experienced overt racism for the first time. 'I stayed with a Pākehā family first, and they told me I wasn't allowed to have black friends. That was pretty full on.' Back in Aotearoa, Leoni enrolled at AUT, studying Māori development and social work, eventually completing a master's degree. By 21 she was working for Child, Youth and Family, and by 23 she was supervising staff twice her age. Alongside a group of friends, she also began investing in property. In her mid-20s, Leoni moved to London. It wasn't your run-of-the-mill OE: she launched a consultancy specialising in social work and quality assurance, and completed another master's degree at King's College London in economics and international politics. Recognising her privilege, she started a charitable organisation called Mana Aroha, helping young Māori and Pasifika move to London for work and exposure. 'I've always had that inspiration to give back to the community,' she says. 'I felt very blessed to have the opportunity to work and travel somewhere I didn't experience the racism we face here as Māori.' A decade abroad gave her a new lens on what makes a world-class city. 'I came back and felt our transport system was way behind, our infrastructure was way behind. Auckland's a beautiful city – but there's so much more we could be doing.' In chambers, Leoni keeps a relatively low profile compared to councillors like Maurice Williamson and Alf Filipaina, who go at it like old foes. Leoni sits two seats from Mayor Brown, next to deputy mayor Desley Simpson – a proximity she says limits her ability to challenge him directly. 'It's hard to get into debate with the mayor because I sit so close to him.' Before announcing her mayoral run last October, she approached Brown to let him know, as a courtesy. 'We have mutual respect, but I don't need his permission.' She says that mutual respect is partly due to their shared connections in the north. She also admires his no-nonsense approach to setting boundaries. 'What I've learned from Wayne is that it's OK to say no to media if your energy's low – as long as you're doing the job. He turned down over 180 interviews early on, and no one questioned it because he's an older white male. It showed me you can set boundaries, delegate, and still lead effectively.' While it's not quite accurate that no one questioned Brown's reluctance to engage with the media, it's true that his standoffishness with the press doesn't seem to have dented his credibility or popularity. Leoni's ward, Whau, covers the central-western suburbs of Blockhouse Bay, New Windsor, Avondale, Green Bay and Kelston, and that's likely where a majority of her support lies. But she knows that to win, she'll need to reach all corners of the supercity – especially into the north and east, where the voter base is older. 'The highest number of voters are 60 years and over, so you've got to have the right policies that resonate with them.' Those policies include bringing council contracting and services in-house to reduce waste, improving city safety – especially on public transport – and continuing efforts to reintegrate agencies like Auckland Transport. She also supports affordable housing, better transport, sustainability and inclusive, transparent governance, she says. 'I feel central government is doing education and health, and we're pretty much doing everything else,' she tells her fellow councillors during a budget meeting. Returning to Auckland, Leoni says, was always about giving back. 'There were times when I wasn't 100% sure I was going to come back, but I hit that 10-year mark [in London] and I knew it was time.' She came home in late 2015, and had twins Kahu and Atarangi with her ex-husband Damian in 2017. They realised their central city apartment was too small for a growing family and bought a home near relatives in Avondale, where Leoni still lives. 'I went from travelling the world to breastfeeding 20 hours a day,' she laughs. The two now co-parent the twins. A Labour Party member, in 2018 Leoni got an email from the party encouraging members to run for local government. She had governance experience through her iwi, Ngāti Kuri and Ngāti Paoa, and says politics felt like a natural next step. 'With all the skills I'd learned overseas, I wanted to come back and contribute to Auckland.' She was elected to the Waitematā Local Board under the City Vision ticket and served as deputy chair in the first half of the term. There, she met Richard Northey, the board's chair and a former Labour MP. He became a political mentor. In 2020, Leoni stood for parliament as Labour's candidate in Waikato, coming second to National's Tim van de Molen in the safe blue seat. Her party list placing of 66 wasn't quite high enough to get her into parliament, despite the red wave of 2020 returning the party a historic 64 seats, but she hasn't ruled out another bid in the future. 'I'm really open to all options… I'd love to look at central government at some point.' In 2022, Leoni ran for Auckland Council in the Whau ward on the Labour ticket, narrowly beating incumbent Tracy Mulholland by 362 votes. She became the first wāhine Māori elected to the council since the 2010 supercity merger. Now, she says, the next step feels obvious. 'I was a local board member, then a councillor – now it's a natural progression to become mayor.' Leoni isn't leaning on identity politics to get there. 'It's not about being the first Māori woman mayor – it's about whether Aucklanders think I've got the policies and strength to lead.' Since announcing her run, she's built a campaign team of around 100 volunteers, attended public events, visited places of worship, and made inroads with both iwi and unexpected allies, like members of the Sikh community. 'Wayne's a millionaire. I'm not,' she says. 'But I've already costed the basics – hoardings, leaflets – and I'm prepared to cover them myself.' At her peak, Leoni owned five properties across Aotearoa. Now she owns three: in Auckland, Waikato and Kaitāia, where she has whakapapa ties. Regardless of the result, Leoni says she has options – a return to work with Ngāti Paoa or Ngāti Kuri, or perhaps politics in Northland. But what's clear is that she's not backing away from public life.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Child care providers fear proposed cuts to state stipend would set back hard-won stability
Mar. 2—Youth and Family Outreach, a day care located in a historic red-doored church on Cumberland Avenue in Portland, has been fully staffed for four straight months — the longest streak in three years. According to Executive Director Camelia Babson-Haley, the child care facility has seen constant staff turnover since the pandemic, a problem that was just beginning to steady thanks to boosts to a state-funded stipend program that gave early childhood workers an extra $240 to $540 per month on top of their regular pay. "2022, 2023, 2024 were just stunning, and just knocked us on our knees," Babson-Haley said last week. "And part of the reason that we're beginning to stabilize is because of those wage supplements." But Gov. Janet Mills is looking to cut that stipend program in half as part of her biennial budget proposal, citing an unsustainable level of funding. Child care facilities like Youth and Family have struggled for years amid a high demand for services, and difficulty in retaining teachers in positions that often pay the same as less-demanding jobs. A year ago, Babson-Haley told the Press Herald that the stipend had allowed her to raise her minimum hourly wage from $12 to $16, and created hope for a stable workforce. But now, she says, it's unlikely that would continue if the stipends are reduced. A FRAGILE INDUSTRY Maine's Department of Health and Human Services began offering a $200 monthly stipend to child care workers in 2021 at the direction of the governor, using federal pandemic aid. The department continued the program with state funding in 2022, and the Legislature increased those stipends last year to between $275 and $625, depending on education and experience, then decreased the range to $240 to $540 over the summer because so many people became eligible. As of last April, more than 7,400 workers were receiving the supplements. But amid a promised budget crunch, Mills is proposing that Maine return the stipends back to the 2022 funding level. Lindsay Hammes, a spokesperson for DHHS, said the governor has been worried about the sustainability of the program since the Legislature doubled the stipends last year. "At the time, the administration expressed concern over the changes — namely that the Legislature would be raising the expectations for family and child care workers that, financially, the state would not be able to sustain, which has proven to be true," Hammes said in an email. She said the program now costs $30 million annually. "The Governor does not like having to propose these changes. As the parent to five stepdaughters, she recognizes the value of child care, both for children and their parents, and her administration has worked hard to expand access to child care by delivering grants through her Jobs Plan to build out more child care centers," Hammes said. "Unfortunately, in a tough budget cycle, tough decisions have to be made and we believe it is important to return the program to a sustainable level of spending, as we initially had, so that we can continue it far into the future." But child care workers say the latest increase in stipends had just allowed the industry to get stabilized, and cuts could set them back and create negative ripple effects in the state's economy. The Legislature's Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee received more than 100 pieces of written testimony in opposition when it held a public hearing earlier this week, where about 40 people also spoke against the proposal. "Reliable, affordable child care is not a luxury — it's a fundamental building block for a thriving workforce. The educators who provide child care are the unsung heroes of the economy," said Morgan Hart Tolin, a co-executive director of the Maine Association for the Education of Young Children, testifying on behalf of a group of day care operators. "But right now, we are dangerously close to losing more of those educators. The governor's proposed $15 million annual cut to the salary supplement program is a direct threat to an already fragile industry." NEWLY STABLE FOOTING Babson-Haley has spent 25 years as the executive director of the Portland day care center, which offers services for children up to age 5, including pre-K. The center has 62 students, 60% of whom come from low-income families. At full staffing, they have 15 employees, plus five Portland Public Schools staff for the pre-K program. "In 2024, we had seven resignations and five new hires," she said Tuesday. "The constant revolving door is feeling like it's just starting to stabilize a little bit." Babson-Haley said she can't envision cutting back wages — which currently start at $18 an hour for teachers. Instead, she said the center will have to shoulder those costs by raising tuition and dipping into the endowment and leftover funds from a COVID-era loan program. Youth and Family's current tuition is $404 a week for infants, and $347 a week for preschoolers. Most of their new hires are immigrants, which Babson-Haley said is important, because most of their students are, too. The center also began offering completely free tuition for children of employees in 2022, which she said has helped with retention and creating a family atmosphere. But even with benefits, child care centers continue to struggle because their wages are comparable to jobs in fast food or retail. "Outside of this field, the work is not as intensive and taxing, and it's paying more," said Charlotte Jacobs, the program director at Seedlings to Sunflowers, a child care center in Gorham. Seedlings to Sunflowers offers a 50% tuition discount for employees, and has been expanding that benefit with the Child Care Employment Award Program, a two-year pilot program included in the state's last biennial budget that helps employees pay for their own child care. It's also no longer included in the governor's proposed budget. The Mills administration said in a written overview of its proposed DHHS cuts that 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" and said cutting it will save $2.5 million annually. At Seedlings, of the 20 employees who are eligible for the program, only three are currently enrolled. The rest are still on the waitlist. Meghann Carrasco is Seedlings' founder and executive director. Across two locations, the center serves about 170 kids from infants to pre-K. The starting pay for teachers is $18 to $20 an hour, and the center has 45 staff members. Carrasco said Seedlings had trouble keeping and finding staff after the pandemic, and was able to avoid raising tuition by relying increasingly on state funding. Now she's worried they'll have to, although as a nonprofit, Carrasco said Seedlings will also plan to lean into fundraisers and grants to make up for that loss. Because the stipends kept increasing, she's worried their loss will hit the workforce even more harshly. "Not only have more educators entered the field, but I worry that with such fragile entry-level people, they'll be like, "I'm out of here — this is so unstable,"' Carrasco said. "And on the other side of that, we have very seasoned people, who are maybe in their 40s or 50s, who have invested their entire lives to this field, who I've already seen — and I'm worried that this will compound the issue — leave the field. ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES Child care workers say they know the financial climate in Maine is tight, and that cuts have to come from somewhere. But they argue the long-term economic consequences, on the workforce and the public school system, negate the savings of cutting money for early childhood programs. "This shouldn't be a cut because it's a foundational need to the constructs and fluidity of our economy," Babson-Healy said. "If working parents don't have child care, they can't go to work. We are the workforce behind the workforce." The waitlist at her facility has 300 students, and she said most Greater Portland day cares are in the same situation. The ripple effects of the closure of a single facility would be massive. Carrasco said Seedlings to Sunflowers has a waitlist of 200. But the cost of day care alone drives parents out of the workforce when they realize it's more economical to quit their jobs than pay for child care, which she said is why the stipends are so critical to keeping those costs down. "It's short-sighted. I know there's anxiety about how the budget is going to be fed," she said. "But if we don't stabilize this field and continue to invest in this field, there will be nothing to build on in this economy." Day care operators also say there are public K-12 implications for not funding early child care. Sandra Nadeau, founder of Cocoons Day School in Kennebunk, said the loss of the stipend will ultimately cost taxpayers thousands more down the road, because early child care centers provide learning to children during a period of critical development. She said fewer day care options lead to greater needs like emotional and behavior support or speech therapy for students once they reach public school. Carrasco agreed. "Kids won't be ready for kindergarten, they'll fall behind, and that impacts the rest of their life. It increases the budget for social-emotional and (Child Development Services) supports within the school system," she said. "Because there's so many studies that show that if you catch behavioral issues early on, typically you're not investing that money down the line." Copy the Story Link
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Child care providers fear proposed cuts to state stipend would set back hard-won stability
Mar. 2—Youth and Family Outreach, a day care located in a historic red-doored church on Cumberland Avenue in Portland, has been fully staffed for four straight months — the longest streak in three years. According to Executive Director Camelia Babson-Haley, the child care facility has seen constant staff turnover since the pandemic, a problem that was just beginning to steady thanks to boosts to a state-funded stipend program that gave early childhood workers an extra $240 to $540 per month on top of their regular pay. "2022, 2023, 2024 were just stunning, and just knocked us on our knees," Babson-Haley said last week. "And part of the reason that we're beginning to stabilize is because of those wage supplements." But Gov. Janet Mills is looking to cut that stipend program in half as part of her biennial budget proposal, citing an unsustainable level of funding. Child care facilities like Youth and Family have struggled for years amid a high demand for services, and difficulty in retaining teachers in positions that often pay the same as less-demanding jobs. A year ago, Babson-Haley told the Press Herald that the stipend had allowed her to raise her minimum hourly wage from $12 to $16, and created hope for a stable workforce. But now, she says, it's unlikely that would continue if the stipends are reduced. A FRAGILE INDUSTRY Maine's Department of Health and Human Services began offering a $200 monthly stipend to child care workers in 2021 at the direction of the governor, using federal pandemic aid. The department continued the program with state funding in 2022, and the Legislature increased those stipends last year to between $275 and $625, depending on education and experience, then decreased the range to $240 to $540 over the summer because so many people became eligible. As of last April, more than 7,400 workers were receiving the supplements. But amid a promised budget crunch, Mills is proposing that Maine return the stipends back to the 2022 funding level. Lindsay Hammes, a spokesperson for DHHS, said the governor has been worried about the sustainability of the program since the Legislature doubled the stipends last year. "At the time, the administration expressed concern over the changes — namely that the Legislature would be raising the expectations for family and child care workers that, financially, the state would not be able to sustain, which has proven to be true," Hammes said in an email. She said the program now costs $30 million annually. "The Governor does not like having to propose these changes. As the parent to five stepdaughters, she recognizes the value of child care, both for children and their parents, and her administration has worked hard to expand access to child care by delivering grants through her Jobs Plan to build out more child care centers," Hammes said. "Unfortunately, in a tough budget cycle, tough decisions have to be made and we believe it is important to return the program to a sustainable level of spending, as we initially had, so that we can continue it far into the future." But child care workers say the latest increase in stipends had just allowed the industry to get stabilized, and cuts could set them back and create negative ripple effects in the state's economy. The Legislature's Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee received more than 100 pieces of written testimony in opposition when it held a public hearing earlier this week, where about 40 people also spoke against the proposal. "Reliable, affordable child care is not a luxury — it's a fundamental building block for a thriving workforce. The educators who provide child care are the unsung heroes of the economy," said Morgan Hart Tolin, a co-executive director of the Maine Association for the Education of Young Children, testifying on behalf of a group of day care operators. "But right now, we are dangerously close to losing more of those educators. The governor's proposed $15 million annual cut to the salary supplement program is a direct threat to an already fragile industry." NEWLY STABLE FOOTING Babson-Haley has spent 25 years as the executive director of the Portland day care center, which offers services for children up to age 5, including pre-K. The center has 62 students, 60% of whom come from low-income families. At full staffing, they have 15 employees, plus five Portland Public Schools staff for the pre-K program. "In 2024, we had seven resignations and five new hires," she said Tuesday. "The constant revolving door is feeling like it's just starting to stabilize a little bit." Babson-Haley said she can't envision cutting back wages — which currently start at $18 an hour for teachers. Instead, she said the center will have to shoulder those costs by raising tuition and dipping into the endowment and leftover funds from a COVID-era loan program. Youth and Family's current tuition is $404 a week for infants, and $347 a week for preschoolers. Most of their new hires are immigrants, which Babson-Haley said is important, because most of their students are, too. The center also began offering completely free tuition for children of employees in 2022, which she said has helped with retention and creating a family atmosphere. But even with benefits, child care centers continue to struggle because their wages are comparable to jobs in fast food or retail. "Outside of this field, the work is not as intensive and taxing, and it's paying more," said Charlotte Jacobs, the program director at Seedlings to Sunflowers, a child care center in Gorham. Seedlings to Sunflowers offers a 50% tuition discount for employees, and has been expanding that benefit with the Child Care Employment Award Program, a two-year pilot program included in the state's last biennial budget that helps employees pay for their own child care. It's also no longer included in the governor's proposed budget. The Mills administration said in a written overview of its proposed DHHS cuts that 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" and said cutting it will save $2.5 million annually. At Seedlings, of the 20 employees who are eligible for the program, only three are currently enrolled. The rest are still on the waitlist. Meghann Carrasco is Seedlings' founder and executive director. Across two locations, the center serves about 170 kids from infants to pre-K. The starting pay for teachers is $18 to $20 an hour, and the center has 45 staff members. Carrasco said Seedlings had trouble keeping and finding staff after the pandemic, and was able to avoid raising tuition by relying increasingly on state funding. Now she's worried they'll have to, although as a nonprofit, Carrasco said Seedlings will also plan to lean into fundraisers and grants to make up for that loss. Because the stipends kept increasing, she's worried their loss will hit the workforce even more harshly. "Not only have more educators entered the field, but I worry that with such fragile entry-level people, they'll be like, "I'm out of here — this is so unstable,"' Carrasco said. "And on the other side of that, we have very seasoned people, who are maybe in their 40s or 50s, who have invested their entire lives to this field, who I've already seen — and I'm worried that this will compound the issue — leave the field. ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES Child care workers say they know the financial climate in Maine is tight, and that cuts have to come from somewhere. But they argue the long-term economic consequences, on the workforce and the public school system, negate the savings of cutting money for early childhood programs. "This shouldn't be a cut because it's a foundational need to the constructs and fluidity of our economy," Babson-Healy said. "If working parents don't have child care, they can't go to work. We are the workforce behind the workforce." The waitlist at her facility has 300 students, and she said most Greater Portland day cares are in the same situation. The ripple effects of the closure of a single facility would be massive. Carrasco said Seedlings to Sunflowers has a waitlist of 200. But the cost of day care alone drives parents out of the workforce when they realize it's more economical to quit their jobs than pay for child care, which she said is why the stipends are so critical to keeping those costs down. "It's short-sighted. I know there's anxiety about how the budget is going to be fed," she said. "But if we don't stabilize this field and continue to invest in this field, there will be nothing to build on in this economy." Day care operators also say there are public K-12 implications for not funding early child care. Sandra Nadeau, founder of Cocoons Day School in Kennebunk, said the loss of the stipend will ultimately cost taxpayers thousands more down the road, because early child care centers provide learning to children during a period of critical development. She said fewer day care options lead to greater needs like emotional and behavior support or speech therapy for students once they reach public school. Carrasco agreed. "Kids won't be ready for kindergarten, they'll fall behind, and that impacts the rest of their life. It increases the budget for social-emotional and (Child Development Services) supports within the school system," she said. "Because there's so many studies that show that if you catch behavioral issues early on, typically you're not investing that money down the line." Copy the Story Link
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Child care providers fear cuts to state stipend would set back hard-won stability
Mar. 2—Youth and Family Outreach, a day care located in a historic red-doored church on Cumberland Avenue in Portland, has been fully staffed for four straight months — the longest streak in three years. According to Executive Director Camelia Babson-Haley, the child care facility has seen constant staff turnover since the pandemic, a problem that was just beginning to steady thanks to boosts to a state-funded stipend program that gave early childhood workers an extra $240 to $540 per month on top of their regular pay. "2022, 2023, 2024 were just stunning, and just knocked us on our knees," Babson-Haley said last week. "And part of the reason that we're beginning to stabilize is because of those wage supplements." But Gov. Janet Mills is looking to cut that stipend program in half as part of her biennial budget proposal, citing an unsustainable level of funding. Child care facilities like Youth and Family have struggled for years amid a high demand for services, and difficulty in retaining teachers in positions that often pay the same as less-demanding jobs. A year ago, Babson-Haley told the Press Herald that the stipend had allowed her to raise her minimum hourly wage from $12 to $16, and created hope for a stable workforce. But now, she says, it's unlikely that would continue if the stipends are reduced. A FRAGILE INDUSTRY Maine's Department of Health and Human Services began offering a $200 monthly stipend to child care workers in 2021 at the direction of the governor, using federal pandemic aid. The department continued the program with state funding in 2022, and the Legislature increased those stipends last year to between $275 and $625, depending on education and experience, then decreased the range to $240 to $540 over the summer because so many people became eligible. As of last April, more than 7,400 workers were receiving the supplements. But amid a promised budget crunch, Mills is proposing that Maine return the stipends back to the 2022 funding level. Lindsay Hammes, a spokesperson for DHHS, said the governor has been worried about the sustainability of the program since the Legislature doubled the stipends last year. "At the time, the administration expressed concern over the changes — namely that the Legislature would be raising the expectations for family and child care workers that, financially, the state would not be able to sustain, which has proven to be true," Hammes said in an email. She said the program now costs $30 million annually. "The Governor does not like having to propose these changes. As the parent to five stepdaughters, she recognizes the value of child care, both for children and their parents, and her administration has worked hard to expand access to child care by delivering grants through her Jobs Plan to build out more child care centers," Hammes said. "Unfortunately, in a tough budget cycle, tough decisions have to be made and we believe it is important to return the program to a sustainable level of spending, as we initially had, so that we can continue it far into the future." But child care workers say the latest increase in stipends had just allowed the industry to get stabilized, and cuts could set them back and create negative ripple effects in the state's economy. The Legislature's Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee received more than 100 pieces of written testimony in opposition when it held a public hearing earlier this week, where about 40 people also spoke against the proposal. "Reliable, affordable child care is not a luxury — it's a fundamental building block for a thriving workforce. The educators who provide child care are the unsung heroes of the economy," said Morgan Hart Tolin, a co-executive director of the Maine Association for the Education of Young Children, testifying on behalf of a group of day care operators. "But right now, we are dangerously close to losing more of those educators. The governor's proposed $15 million annual cut to the salary supplement program is a direct threat to an already fragile industry." NEWLY STABLE FOOTING Babson-Haley has spent 25 years as the executive director of the Portland day care center, which offers services for children up to age 5, including pre-K. The center has 62 students, 60% of whom come from low-income families. At full staffing, they have 15 employees, plus five Portland Public Schools staff for the pre-K program. "In 2024, we had seven resignations and five new hires," she said Tuesday. "The constant revolving door is feeling like it's just starting to stabilize a little bit." Babson-Haley said she can't envision cutting back wages — which currently start at $18 an hour for teachers. Instead, she said the center will have to shoulder those costs by raising tuition and dipping into the endowment and leftover funds from a COVID-era loan program. Youth and Family's current tuition is $404 a week for infants, and $347 a week for preschoolers. Most of their new hires are immigrants, which Babson-Haley said is important, because most of their students are, too. The center also began offering completely free tuition for children of employees in 2022, which she said has helped with retention and creating a family atmosphere. But even with benefits, child care centers continue to struggle because their wages are comparable to jobs in fast food or retail. "Outside of this field, the work is not as intensive and taxing, and it's paying more," said Charlotte Jacobs, the program director at Seedlings to Sunflowers, a child care center in Gorham. Seedlings to Sunflowers offers a 50% tuition discount for employees, and has been expanding that benefit with the Child Care Employment Award Program, a two-year pilot program included in the state's last biennial budget that helps employees pay for their own child care. It's also no longer included in the governor's proposed budget. The Mills administration said in a written overview of its proposed DHHS cuts that 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" and said cutting it will save $2.5 million annually. At Seedlings, of the 20 employees who are eligible for the program, only three are currently enrolled. The rest are still on the waitlist. Meghann Carrasco is Seedlings' founder and executive director. Across two locations, the center serves about 170 kids from infants to pre-K. The starting pay for teachers is $18 to $20 an hour, and the center has 45 staff members. Carrasco said Seedlings had trouble keeping and finding staff after the pandemic, and was able to avoid raising tuition by relying increasingly on state funding. Now she's worried they'll have to, although as a nonprofit, Carrasco said Seedlings will also plan to lean into fundraisers and grants to make up for that loss. Because the stipends kept increasing, she's worried their loss will hit the workforce even more harshly. "Not only have more educators entered the field, but I worry that with such fragile entry-level people, they'll be like, "I'm out of here — this is so unstable,"' Carrasco said. "And on the other side of that, we have very seasoned people, who are maybe in their 40s or 50s, who have invested their entire lives to this field, who I've already seen — and I'm worried that this will compound the issue — leave the field." ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES Child care workers say they know the financial climate in Maine is tight, and that cuts have to come from somewhere. But they argue the long-term economic consequences, on the workforce and the public school system, negate the savings of cutting money for early childhood programs. "This shouldn't be a cut because it's a foundational need to the constructs and fluidity of our economy," Babson-Healy said. "If working parents don't have child care, they can't go to work. We are the workforce behind the workforce." The waitlist at her facility has 300 students, and she said most Greater Portland day cares are in the same situation. The ripple effects of the closure of a single facility would be massive. Carrasco said Seedlings to Sunflowers has a waitlist of 200. But the cost of day care alone drives parents out of the workforce when they realize it's more economical to quit their jobs than pay for child care, which she said is why the stipends are so critical to keeping those costs down. "It's short-sighted. I know there's anxiety about how the budget is going to be fed," she said. "But if we don't stabilize this field and continue to invest in this field, there will be nothing to build on in this economy." Day care operators also say there are public K-12 implications for not funding early child care. Sandra Nadeau, founder of Cocoons Day School in Kennebunk, said the loss of the stipend will ultimately cost taxpayers thousands more down the road, because early child care centers provide learning to children during a period of critical development. She said fewer day care options lead to greater needs like emotional and behavior support or speech therapy for students once they reach public school. Carrasco agreed. "Kids won't be ready for kindergarten, they'll fall behind, and that impacts the rest of their life. It increases the budget for social-emotional and (Child Development Services) supports within the school system," she said. "Because there's so many studies that show that if you catch behavioral issues early on, typically you're not investing that money down the line." Copy the Story Link
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion - Argentina presents a cautionary tale for America's children
President Trump is waging an outrageous campaign through his unelected surrogate Elon Musk to illegally defund huge portions of the federal government and dramatically pare down the federal workforce. Under the guise of 'efficiency,' Musk and his minions have seized dangerous access to federal payment systems while unilaterally shutting down whole agencies without congressional approval. What effect will this gutting of the administrative state have on children? An ominous harbinger of things to come exists in the actions over the last year by President Javier Milei of Argentina. Like Trump, Milei ran a campaign that ostensibly focused on reining in government waste and regulatory overreach. With a flair for showmanship similar to the American president, Milei repeatedly brandished a chainsaw to vividly represent his commitment to shredding government spending. And Milei wasted no time in implementing a punishing program of austerity disproportionately targeting the public sector. Trump praised this attack on government, called Milei his 'favorite president' and hosted him at Mar-a-Lago for his first meeting with a foreign leader after winning the 2024 election. Musk lauded Milei as a 'helpful model for the rest of the world.' Milei laid out a playbook that the current administration plans to follow in the U.S. One year in, the Milei administration's incapacitation of the Argentinian government has been a disaster for children, just as Musk's campaign — and Trump's economic agenda more broadly — inevitably will be. Upon taking office, Milei slashed the number of ministries in Argentina's federal government from 18 to nine, including relegating the Secretariat for Children, Youth and Family to a lower status. He fired at least 35,000 government employees in his first year on the job. The Secretariat for Children, Youth and Family was among the hardest hit, losing 1,656 workers and nearly 60 percent of its budget. Milei also froze new hires in much of the public sector and cut public employee salaries. As a result, the Argentinian government is significantly less efficient in meeting the needs of its citizens, especially children. Pediatric hospitals have been unable to replenish their workforces given hiring freezes, while supply shortages and intense financial burdens on the health workforce threaten quality of care for vulnerable children. At Garrahan Hospital, Argentina's largest pediatric hospital, wages for medical professionals have fallen by nearly 40 percent, with staff shortages severely undermining the operation and quality of treatment. Milei's track record on food security and nutrition is worse still. The Argentinian government completely ended delivery of food to soup kitchens upon which many of the nation's poor rely. Courts have ordered distribution of 5,000 tons of food that is sitting in warehouses, but the Milei government doubled down, filing numerous appeals to keep food out of the hands of the poor. Milei's policies led to a spike in malnutrition in low-income barrios, with children being treated for eye diseases, vitamin deficiencies and scurvy. The broader effect of across-the-board budget cuts — exactly what has been promised by Trump and Musk — and the economic downturn they delivered in Argentina has been most devastating for kids. National poverty soared to 53 percent, its highest level in 20 years. The poverty rate for children is even more dire, with 71 percent of children in Argentina falling below the poverty line, representing an additional 1.5 million kids in poverty in 2024. American children face a similarly bleak future if Musk's power grab, aided and abetted by Trump, continues unimpeded. Congress and the public must stand up for children here and abroad, demanding that this power-hungry Silicon Valley oligarch and his right-wing fanatics release the country from their grip. Chris Becker is vice president of budget policy and data analytics at First Focus on Children. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
