Katie Liu and Eliza Bullis are parents of preschoolers at Catherine Morrill Day Nursery in
Portland and community supporters of early childhood education.

Every morning before work, we drop our children off at Catherine Morrill Day Nursery, a century-old 501(c)(3) nonprofit daycare and preschool in Portland. Our daughters, friends since their earliest days in the infant room, have a busy day of play, learning and social-emotional growth ahead of them.

Access to high-quality early childhood education is an essential part of our children’s development and our families’ daily functioning. It’s where we can trust qualified educators to nurture our children’s well-being during those busy work hours when we cannot. 

We are fortunate. Many Maine families cannot afford necessary child care, let alone high-quality programs. And access is only becoming more difficult.

Early childhood education is important. The first five years of a child’s life are critical for brain development. Research shows that children who attend high-quality early childhood education programs enter kindergarten better prepared academically and socially. These benefits are especially powerful for children from low-income families.

Unfortunately, early childhood education is costly for families and low paying for educators. In Cumberland County, the median annual cost of infant child care is $14,513, or 11.4% of median family income, beyond what many families can manage. At the same time, child care centers struggle to attract and retain qualified educators.

Low pay is a clear disincentive. Nationally, college graduates with a bachelor’s in early childhood education have the lowest projected lifetime earnings of any major. On average, child care workers in Maine earn just $34,150 a year. High turnover fuels burnout and strains programs, with 73% of programs citing staffing shortages as the main reason for under-enrollment, compounding financial strain.

Early childhood education is not only essential for children and families; it is essential for Maine’s economy. More than two-thirds of Maine children under 6 (approximately 51,000) have all parents in the workforce. In Cumberland County alone, a single year with the current child care shortfall is projected to result in $3.2 million to $4.9 million in economic losses over the next decade.

In Maine, as elsewhere, access to early childhood education is increasingly fragile. The expiration of federal pandemic-era stabilization funds, primarily from the American Rescue Plan Act, created what experts refer to as the “child care cliff.” When the funding ended, the costs didn’t disappear — they shifted onto programs, educators and parents.

Catherine Morrill ’s story reflects these statewide challenges. The daycare and preschool serves about 65 children annually (infants through pre-K) across six classrooms, including one public pre-K classroom in partnership with Portland Public Schools.

Catherine Morrill prioritizes equitable access, with over half its families relying on state child care assistance. But recent reimbursement changes, delays in receiving state subsidies and stalling of the bipartisanly approved LD 1955 have created significant ongoing financial gaps.

These gaps not only mean that our school is operating with less, it means Catherine Morrill is focused on immediate financial needs rather than planning for how to best care for future generations of early learners.

We see the impact every day in the faces of the educators who care for our children — dedicated professionals doing more with less. They deserve better. So do the children and families already struggling.

Like many other early childhood programs, Catherine Morrill Day Nursery is seeking new sources of support.  Families and program leaders are stepping up wherever they can — organizing food drives, creating a community closet and supporting teachers.

Internal fundraising can only do so much. Grants are increasingly competitive as nonprofits statewide attempt to replace lost public support. System-level change and advocacy are essential, but individual action matters too — especially now.

As we enter this season of giving, we ask you to make a direct investment in Maine’s children,
families and workforce by donating to Catherine Morrill Day Nursery or other nonprofit early childhood education centers in your community. Your support helps close the funding gap created by state and federal shortfalls and ensures that programming continues uninterrupted for Maine’s youngest learners, regardless of their family’s ability to pay.

Early childhood education serves as a force multiplier to strengthen not just Maine’s families, but also our economy and our shared future. These programs are doing their part every day; the rest of us must do ours.