Child Care Aware® of America applauds the White House for calling on Congress to invest an additional $16 billion in child care stabilization grants over the next year. Proposed funding would bolster the nation’s fragile child care system as current American Rescue Plan Act stabilization grant funding expired at the end of September. Stabilization grants have been critical to helping families return to work and rebuilding the supply of child care to pre-pandemic levels. Grants helped offset fixed costs and raise the wages of the child care workforce beyond the average $14 per hour in what remains a tight labor market.
Even before the pandemic, child care operated on a broken business model – one in which families couldn’t afford to bear the high costs and child care teachers couldn’t earn enough to take care of their own families.
CCAoA urges Congress to support sustained, increased investment in child care through the Child Care and Development Block Grant alongside additional child care stabilization grant funding so families can work while their children are healthy, safe and learning, businesses can thrive, and our economy can grow.
