Op-Ed: Maine lawmakers, regulators made child care as expensive as it is today
Over the last couple decades, Maine’s child care providers have seen more rules added to the books in the name of “quality,” while providers – particularly family providers, which are less expensive than center-based care – disappear. The state has lost nearly 40% of family care providers since 2013, while prices have climbed.
Maine Policy identified this trend in 2018, when we published an analysis that found that, since 2008, Maine had lost 25% of all providers, and each county had lost more than one-fifth of family providers.
Jacob Posik, Director of Communications, explains in the Portland Press Herald how lawmakers can begin to unravel the mess of rules to which child care providers are subject this session, and help increase choices for parents, expand capacity, and lower prices.