“Tom Weber, the executive director of the Massachusetts Business Coalition for Early Childhood Education, a statewide coalition that formed in 2021, told me his network has reached the same conclusion as Iowa: that getting employers involved in child care must mean largely reducing the number of child care decisions individual businesses have to make. Collaborative solutions also need to be developed, Weber emphasized, particularly for small companies with only a few employees who might require support.
“‘There is intrigue among businesses but there is a fairly limited and immature market of opportunities for employers to do this,’ he said. Weber’s group successfully established a $2.5 million state matching grant for Massachusetts businesses to pilot new care models. One idea is for local employers to collectively fund the early childhood education workforce. ‘There are dormant classrooms all over Massachusetts,’ Weber said. ‘Rather than building a new facility or subsidizing a single family, if employers pool reserves to provide some supplemental resources you could staff those.'”
—“This workplace benefit is helping parents—and boosting businesses. Could it backfire? Most Americans have no access to employer-sponsored child care. That could soon change,” by Rachel Cohen, Vox, February 26, 2025