WORCESTER, Mass. - Signs supporting the Common Start legislation are scattered around Worcester’s Elm Park. Dozens showed up Saturday in support of the bill, which would make early child care more affordable and accessible through a five-year plan.

“We really feel that early education and child care is important for everybody,” Liz Sheehan Castro, of the Central Massachusetts Common Start Coalition said. “And it’s really important for the community as a whole to ensure all of our children are getting a really good and fair start. And it’s really important for the economy as well in terms of employees really needing to know that there employees have access to education.”

Families below 50% of the statewide median income would be able to access child care options for free. Meanwhile, parents above the income level would pay no more than 7% of their total house income for early child care.

“We need to properly fund early childhood and it’s really kind of a travesty that Massachusetts hasn’t done that," Sen. Anne Gobi of Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire and Middlesex said. 

Better pay for educators is also part of the legislation.

“It is a 10-hour job and taking care of children, even as a mom isn’t an easy job,” child care provider Florence Doe said. “You are their mom, you are their doctor, [and] you are their nutritionist. You name it.”

And parents say a bill like this is needed more than ever, for families who have been financially and socially impacted during the pandemic.

"It’s always been a glaring need in the community, but it’s made a lot more potent and evident recovering from COVID," a parent at the rally, Andrew Small, said. 

On Tuesday, both the house and senate will hold a virtual public hearing on this bill.