Good early child care and parent education could save Maine money on jails, special education and substance abuse, Attorney General Steven Rowe told a group at University of Southern Maine's Lewiston-Auburn College on Wednesday.
Last summer, when organizers were reaching out to home-based day cares to gather support for a new union that could represent independent child-care providers in Maine, Melanie Collins didn't need any persuading. As a former nurse, she had seen firsthand the benefits unions provide medical workers, from improving the work environment to ensuring adequate pay. "I'm very pro union," she says.
While hundreds of child care providers from all over the state were honored at the eighth annual Maine Roads to Quality reception on Saturday for improving their skills, one was selected for special recognition.
Nearly 2,200 people who care for children in their homes plan to press their case for joining a union when the Legislature reconvenes next year, following a statewide vote in favor of organizing.
A group studying ways to help young children voted Wednesday on a broad proposal that would give low-income parents more money to pay for child care and create a new office to advocate for children.
With postcard ballots sent out Friday, about 2,200 Maine home-based child-care providers could vote to join a service employees' union to obtain lobbying power in Augusta.
On Oct. 1, the state will stop using voucher management agencies to dole out child care subsidies and will instead give parents debit cards to pay for day care themselves.
About 2,200 child-care providers in Maine will soon vote on whether they want to unionize.