State Senator Stan Rosenberg (D-Amherst), Majority Leader of the Massachusetts Senate, announced today that he has secured $9.5 million in the Senate's Capital Bond Bill for the design and construction of a childcare center on the Greenfield Community College campus.

Rosenberg said this proposed center, which would be a state-of-the-art facility designed to achieve maximum environmental efficiency, would be a boon not just to GCC students but also to working-class families across Franklin County, and to the region's economy as a whole.

"Very often, the lack of quality childcare is an obstacle to lower-income families entering the workforce, or acquiring the necessary education and job training to qualify for a better job," Rosenberg said. "Franklin County is one of the poorest areas of the state and I firmly believe this childcare center will play a significant role in helping to break the cycle of poverty for many Franklin County families."

"I commend GCC President Robert Pura and Community Action Executive Director Clare Higgins for their unwavering commitment to this project and I look forward to working with them, the GCC family, and my colleagues in the House to make this center a reality," Rosenberg added. "A project of this scale will require teamwork and I'm eager to get started."

"The need for a child care center on GCC's campus to provide stable, quality care is clear," said GCC President Robert L. Pura, "and we are very appreciative of the efforts of Senator Rosenberg and his colleagues for recognizing and addressing that need." He noted that the center will also serve families from throughout the community and will be the "lab school" for GCC's Education Program students to do their field work.

"Safe, quality, affordable child care is critical to the success of our students who are also parents and our Education Program students and faculty will benefit greatly from having this wonderful facility located here," Pura added. "Campus-based early education and care programs are intended for the combined functions of early childhood education and college instruction, offering a unique blend of education and training for our Education Program students while also providing high quality educational experiences for young children. Our students and this community deserve that."

"This would be great for the college, and great for the community," Higgins said. "This would be a facility built for young children that would help them grow and thrive. It's just great, great news."

Rosenberg's amendment funding the GCC childcare center, co-sponsored with State Senator Benjamin Downing (D-Pittsfield), was not included in the House version of the Capital Bond Bill, so the amount, $9,458,561, will be subject to change when the House-Senate conference committee seeks to reconcile the two versions of the bill.

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