Editors, Vineyard Gazette;

Dear Massachusetts community members and especially our elected state house and senate reps debating on details of the state childcare legislation. Thank you so much for the wind in the sails of bills H.489/S.301 about to merge into a rainbow of inspiration and illumination during this session of our Massachusetts Congress.

Living in a state that prioritizes education, I was recently reminded that nothing magical happens at age five. We start learning at birth, so by age five our little brains are 95 per cent developed.

Ages 0-5 years old is such a rich time in our lives as little citizens. We see, feel, hear, touch and taste (everything goes in our mouth). It all flushes in as big people in our lives help us sort it out.

“I was able to be home with my son during those years“ really means my husband and I hustled to make it work financially. He was growing a business and I would tag out to work in a garden or a restaurant when Demy went to Island Children’s School. One year, we were awarded a Bailey Boyd grant that helped soothe the $800 a month bite. For part-time.

This new legislation is to revive a dying industry. Parents cannot pay any more. Preschool teachers cannot live on any less. Their counterparts teaching K-8 grades make three times the salary.

Thank you, Gov. Maura Healey, Julian Cyr and Dylan Fernandes for supporting these bills. I’m excited to see this vision of pay parity in early education actualize. Thank you.

Amy Heil

Edgartown