{"id":5673,"date":"2021-11-16T14:56:53","date_gmt":"2021-11-16T14:56:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/2021\/11\/16\/kentucky-has-a-once-in-a-generation-chance-to-invest-in-child-care-and-early-education-dont-let-washington-sideline-us\/"},"modified":"2022-09-27T19:50:07","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T19:50:07","slug":"kentucky-has-a-once-in-a-generation-chance-to-invest-in-child-care-and-early-education-dont-let-washington-sideline-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/kentucky-has-a-once-in-a-generation-chance-to-invest-in-child-care-and-early-education-dont-let-washington-sideline-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky Has a Once-in-a-Generation Chance to Invest in Child Care and Early Education: Don\u2019t Let Washington Sideline Us!"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][wyde_button title=”Tell Congress to support once-in-a-generation investments in child care and early learning.” size=”large” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Foneclickpolitics.global.ssl.fastly.net%2Fmessages%2Fedit%3Fpromo_id%3D14632″][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]On November 15th the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, a $1 trillion upgrade to America\u2019s crumbling roads, bridges, and other critical brick-and-mortar needs, was signed into law.\u00a0 The bill made good on a decades-long need to shore up a vital part of all local economies across America; the highways, byways, boulevards, and bridges we each depend on to safely reach our offices, classrooms, and marketplaces.\u00a0 While we may all take for granted the importance of a sturdy road in our daily lives, one thing is certain, we would miss it if it were gone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill is something to celebrate, the potential strength of our local economies remains stuck in the mud.\u00a0 <\/span>It is critical to local economies across the commonwealth and across the nation that historic investments in child care and early education are passed into law.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

The U.S. Congress holds the power to pass an incredible <\/span>$400 billion<\/b> investment <\/b>into America\u2019s struggling child care and early education sector<\/span> right now<\/b> that is estimated to deliver nearly<\/span> $2 billion to Kentucky <\/b><\/a>to invest in its children! <\/b>This presents Kentuckians with a <\/span>once-in-a-generation<\/b> opportunity to provide care and early learning opportunities to unprecedented numbers of Kentucky children and support their working moms and dads.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Increase Access to Affordable, High-Quality Child Care\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n

This investment will limit child care costs for families to no more than 7% of income for families earning up to 250% of state median income. It enables states to expand child care access to about 20 million children across the U.S. <\/span>Parents must be working, seeking work, in training, or taking care of a serious health issue in order to participate. <\/b>This is a long-term program, with funding for six years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Provide Universal Preschool for all 3- and 4-Year-Olds in a Mixed Delivery System<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

This investment will increase access to free high-quality preschool for more than 6 million children across the U.S. This is a long-term program, with funding for six years.\u00a0 Preschool services will be delivered using a <\/span>mixed delivery model<\/b> that includes private child care small businesses, Head Start, and already existing public preschools.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0A mixed delivery model ensures that more 3- and 4-year-olds gain access to a high-quality preschool education and ensures that already existing child care and other early education centers remain economically viable.\u00a0 The use of a mixed delivery model is a <\/span>win-win-win<\/b> for providers, children, and local communities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This investment supports the economy & the workforce<\/h4>\n

Child care small business owners and early education practitioners are the <\/span>workforce behind the workforce<\/b>.\u00a0 <\/span>Parents require access to a safe and high-quality environment for their children to attend while parents are in class or at work. <\/b>13.6% of Kentucky families<\/span><\/a> report job insecurity due to a lack of child care and Kentucky families at the end of 2020<\/span> indicated 46% have quit jobs, declined jobs, or greatly changed their jobs<\/span><\/a> due to a lack of accessible child care and early education services.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Like a sturdy road or bridge, the workforce is dependent upon access to child care and early education centers in order to enter, remain in and fully contribute to the workforce.\u00a0 And unfortunately, like America\u2019s roads and bridges, child care and early education have been insufficiently invested in for decades.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lack of investment in child care and early education costs employers over <\/span>$3 billion annually<\/span><\/a> due to employee absenteeism and $57 billion in lost earnings, business productivity, and tax revenue across the United States.\u00a0 <\/span>In Kentucky, this accounts for $573 million in lost earnings, business productivity, and tax revenue.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Congress holds the power to remove barriers for working moms and dads to contribute more to the workforce and for their children to receive a strong start in their education.\u00a0 A child\u2019s participation in high-quality early learning programs can result in higher rates of proficiency in reading and mathematics by the third grade.\u00a0 And children who participate in high-quality preschool programs are 40% <\/span>less <\/b>likely to drop out of school and 50%<\/span> less <\/b>likely to be placed in special education.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kentuckians must not let this once-in-a-generation investment in child care and early education be sidelined by our leaders in Washington.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/h4>\n

We must invest in increased access to child care and early education, the workforce behind the workforce, to ensure that more families enter, remain in, and fully contribute to Kentucky\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

With more jobs on the way to Kentucky on the heels of major announcements from corporations like <\/span>Ford, Toyota, and Tyson<\/b>, the time is now to grow child care and early education access for parents in the workforce and for their children who require a strong start in their education to remain economically competitive.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Otherwise, like those roads and bridges, we might miss those child care and early education centers when they are gone.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][wyde_button title=”Tell Congress to support once-in-a-generation investments in child care and early learning.” size=”large” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Foneclickpolitics.global.ssl.fastly.net%2Fmessages%2Fedit%3Fpromo_id%3D14632″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Congress holds the power to pass an incredible $400 billion investment into America\u2019s struggling child care and early education sector right now that is estimated to deliver nearly $2 billion to Kentucky to invest in its children! This presents Kentuckians with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to provide care and early learning opportunities to unprecedented numbers of Kentucky children and support their working moms and dads.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":6248,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"passster_activate_protection":false,"passster_protect_child_pages":"","passster_protection_type":"password","passster_password":"","passster_activate_overwrite_defaults":"","passster_headline":"","passster_instruction":"","passster_placeholder":"","passster_button":"","passster_id":"","passster_activate_misc_settings":"","passster_redirect_url":"","passster_hide":"no","passster_area_shortcode":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-strong-start"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5673"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6129,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5673\/revisions\/6129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}