Kentucky Republican lawmaker announces sweeping bill
(Story provided by Associated Press)
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — When Jesse Skuk shares the happy news that she's pregnant with her first child, she says the reactions are often the same, especially among other working female professionals.
“The excitement is immediately followed by, 'Are you on the list?'” Sook says.
What they're asking is whether she signed up for a daycare a few months before the baby, due in June. Schuke, an executive with Kentucky's vast community and technical school system, said this reflects the growing concerns of working parents about finding affordable, high-quality child care. he said on Tuesday.
Republican Sen. Danny Carroll announced sweeping legislation Tuesday aimed at strengthening and expanding the child care network across the Bluegrass state. Another aim is to strengthen early childhood education, he said. One of his long-term goals, he said, is to one day make terms like “child care” and “childcare” obsolete and replace them with early childhood education, regardless of the setting or the age of the child.
Carroll is proposing that the state spend $150 million a year on the bill's child care program in the next two-year budget cycle, which begins July 1. The Republican-controlled Legislature is expected to finalize the next state spending plan within the next month.
“Kentucky needs to step up now and be a shining example for the rest of the country, and we will reap the benefits if we make that decision,” Carroll said at a news conference.
This bill comes at a time of uncertainty for childcare workers and parents. The $24 billion in pandemic aid Congress passed for child care businesses in 2021 is running out. Republican state lawmakers across the country are responding by supporting child care programs.
Still, the biggest investments in child care have come from Democrats. In New Mexico, the state uses a trust funded by oil and gas production to pay for child care for most children under 5. In Vermont, Democratic lawmakers overrode the Republican governor's veto and passed a payroll tax increase to fund child care subsidies.
Carroll said in Kentucky that his actions and request for funding “will go a long way toward averting the immediate crisis we face if we don't act with purpose and certainty.”
His bill, called the Horizons Act, would include state aid for families struggling to pay for day care and child care. It would create a fund aimed at increasing the availability of early childhood education services and fostering innovation in early childhood education.
As part of the effort, the state's community and technical school system will offer an associate's degree in early childhood education entrepreneurship, with the goal of preparing graduates to run child care centers. Sook expressed the community and technical school system's readiness to offer additional programs to expand access to child care.
But it was her personal comment about the anxiety of finding childcare that particularly resonated.
“Both professional women and men across the Commonwealth have to deal with the challenges of learning the exciting news of growing families,” she said.
Carroll's bill drew widespread praise from business and children's advocates. Supporters said a strong child care network would improve Kentucky's low labor force participation rate and make the state more competitive in attracting new businesses.
The bill also received support from Jennifer Washburn, who owns and operates an early childhood education center in Benton, in far western Kentucky.
Washburn said these centers face constant stress over staffing and tuition. With the loss of federal support, many centers face the painful choice of cutting staff salaries, increasing tuition or closing, she said.
She called Carroll's bill “an exceptional starting point to address the needs of a broken system.”
Carroll said in an interview that Kentucky will pay a “huge price” if lawmakers fail to address chronic child care problems. That includes placing greater emphasis on early childhood education, he said. Those decisions will be made in the coming weeks, as lawmakers reached the halfway point of their 60-day session on Tuesday.
“Early childhood education is an afterthought in this state and we have to make it a priority,” Carroll said. “If we want to reach the level of education we want, this is where we start.” I think this is the reason why we missed the boat this year.”
