Convince Congress to Invest in Child Care!
In July, Congress passed a Bill that was mostly bad for young children, their families, and child care professionals. Head Start will face major cutbacks, child care subsidies will drop substantially, and in coming years it will be much harder economically for providers to be able to support working in child care. The one benefit of the Bill was to increase the Federal Child Tax Credit, which does not support child care directly, but enables families to afford it if they’re willing to get it.
When Congress re-convenes after Labor Day, it will be in a big hurry to appropriate Federal spending for the coming year. There’s lots of support for substantial increases in Federal child care funding in both Houses of Congress, but we all need to work to turn that into real money.
Both of your Federal Senators and your Representative will be at home near where you live and work during August. That’s an excellent time for you to make a pitch to them for Federal funding, perhaps including an invitation to come and visit your wonderful child care program. Most families have a real struggle to afford the kind of child care their children need and deserve, and most of the other governments of wealthy countries in the world pay far more for that than the US Government does. You need to be able to afford to work in child care instead of another job, and parents need to be able to pay for child care so that they can work.
