Press Releases
07/14/2020
AG Tong Joins Multistate Coalition Urging US Senate to Increase Childcare Funding in the Next Federal Stimulus Package
Coalition of 22 AGs Calls for At Least $50 Billion to Ensure Families Have Access to Quality, Affordable Childcare
(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong today joined a coalition of 22 attorneys general urging the United States Senate to provide robust financial support for childcare providers in the next federal stimulus bill amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.In a letter sent to Senate leadership today, the coalition of attorneys general called on Congress to provide at least $50 billion in funding to address the immediate needs of childcare systems around the country. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many childcare providers are operating at reduced capacity or have closed, leaving them with little to no revenue to cover payroll, rent, insurance, and other fixed costs. This additional financial support would help childcare providers fulfill these financial obligations so that they are not forced to close for good. It would also help cover essential duty pay for educators and reduce the financial burden on families.
“The American childcare system is broken—this was true before the pandemic and has only worsened. Childcare providers are struggling to function with new health and safety costs and dramatically diminished capacity. We cannot restart our economy and get parents back to work unless we address this head on with significant federal support. I thank Connecticut’s senators for fighting for us on this issue, and urge their colleagues to follow their lead and include robust financial support for childcare providers in the next stimulus bill,” said Attorney General Tong.
The coalition also expressed support for broader reforms to our childcare system. The attorneys general argue that our childcare system suffers from a broken model, where “parents pay too much and educators make too little,” and that the current pandemic has exacerbated already existing disparities in race, income, and gender in our childcare workforce. The letter insists that “[t]o build a more equitable society beyond this current crisis, we need structural reform that ensures every family has access to quality, affordable childcare and educators earn the pay that they deserve.”
The letter cites a recent survey by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, which found that only 11 percent of providers could survive a closure of indeterminate length without government intervention, and just 16 percent could survive a closure of more than one month. Recent estimates predict that, without adequate federal support, nearly 4.5 million childcare slots across the country are at risk of disappearing, including more than 46,000 in Connecticut.
Joining Attorney General Tong in sending today’s Massachusetts-led letter are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington State, and Wisconsin.
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