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09/18/2023 04:26 PMPress Release from Branford Family Resource Center
The Branford Public Schools Family Resource Center has joined nearly 1,000 child care advocates from all 50 states in urging federal lawmakers to immediately pass $16 billion in emergency child care funding to prevent a looming child care crisis that will disrupt families’ child care and devastate Connecticut’s economy. The letter was led by the National Women’s Law Center.
“We write to urge you to invest at least $16 billion per year in emergency child care funding to avert a devastating decrease in the supply of care that would disrupt both families and our economy,” the groups wrote to leadership and appropriators in the U.S. House and Senate. “[On Monday, Sept. 30], the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) stabilization dollars that saved the child care industry from collapse will expire.”
The letter goes on to underscore that without this $16 billion emergency investment, child care programs in Connecticut and across the country will be forced to either raise their rates or close their doors permanently, leaving thousands of families in Connecticut without the child care that they depend on.
The letter also notes that due to these ARPA dollars, states have been able to make long-deferred investments to their child care assistance system, helping more families afford and access child care, along with improved wages for early educators. This progress, however, is at significant risk of going away once this funding expires.
“Even before the pandemic, families struggled to find and afford care, early educators made poverty wages, and over half of counties were child care deserts, without sufficient supply of child care,” the letter continues. “If Congress fails to act, it will leave the child care industry even worse off than its pre-pandemic precarity.”
The full letter can be found here.
Learn more about Branford Public Schools Family Resource Center here.