Advocating for Affordable, High-Quality Child Care

Don’t Buy Me Flowers on Mother’s Day – Fund Child Care Press Conference and Rally at the PA Capitol: May 9, 2023, 10:00 AM (register here)

Join Start Strong PA in advocating for increased access to and affordability of high-quality child care programs, beginning with infants and toddlers. Start Strong supports healthy child development, school success, working families, and the economy by ensuring that everyone in Pennsylvania has access to high-quality child care choices.

In Pennsylvania:

• February 2023 survey of more than 1,000 child care providers:
  • 84% of child care programs report a staffing shortage
  • 1,526 classrooms are closed
  • 35,469 children currently sit on waiting lists
• Only 45% of child care capacity currently meets high-quality standards.
• The average child care teacher earns less than $12.50/hr. with approximately 21% of those child care teachers relying on SNAP benefits and 21% insured by Medicaid.
• 57% of residents live in a child care desert, an area where there are 3x as many children as licensed child care slots.
• Child care costs represent 40% of the median annual income of a single parent.
• Gaps in Pennsylvania’s child care system is costing working families, employers, and taxpayers $6.65 billion annually in lost wages, productivity, and revenue.

Start Strong’s four advocacy goals include:

1. Access and Affordability for Families: Increase state funds to make high-quality child care for children under three years old affordable.
2. Sufficient Payments for High-Quality Child Care Programs: Ensure service consistency for infants and toddlers by paying providers in ways that reinforce stability.
3. Adequate Compensation for Early Learning Professionals: Attract, compensate, and retain additional talented adults to become early childhood educators.
4. Oversight, Accountability, and Evaluation of the System: Ensure the child care system is efficient and effective.

2023-2024 PA State Budget:

Start Strong PA is advocating for a $500 million investment to #RaiseChildCare wages.

1. Implement a child care teacher wage scale that will compete in today’s labor market and recognizes the qualifications of the professionals doing the work. Raise wages to $15/hr. for HS diploma or GED, $19/hr. for Associate Degree, and $21/hr. for a Bachelor’s Degree or higher. The total investment for this progressive wage scale is $430 million.
2. Invest $70 million to increase funding for programs serving subsidized children that have reached a STAR 2, 3, or 4 rating, thereby incentivizing programs to achieve higher levels of quality, and sustaining those that have met the high-quality standards. Such an investment will help compensate child care providers closer to the actual cost of providing these services.

How Can You Join These Efforts?

1. Join the Start Strong PA Coalition.

2. Meet with your legislators in their district offices using PA Start Strong’s Talking Points.
3. Register to attend the Don’t Buy Me Flowers on Mother’s Day – Fund Child Care Press Conference and Rally at the PA Capitol Main Rotunda on May 9, 2023, at 10:00 AM.