Baldwin Seeks Improved Access to High Quality Child Care

Press Release

Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) has introduced legislation in the House to help more families have access to child care and improve the quality of that care.

"Child care is a building block of our nation's future. It helps children, families and communities prosper," said Congresswoman Baldwin. "When children are in high quality child care programs, they learn and develop skills they need to succeed in school and in life, and their parents have the support and peace of mind to pursue more stable employment. When America supports high quality child care, we encourage children to reach their full potential and help families struggling in the current economy," Baldwin said.

Ruth Schmidt, executive director of the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association commended Congresswoman Baldwin for introducing this important legislation. "So much of what is in this bill is exciting and necessary. The emphasis on training and technical assistance linked to increased compensation for people working in the child care field, the push for and investment in quality rating and improvement systems, and the minimum training requirements for child care providers will go a long way to ensuring that all families in Wisconsin have access to the kind of early care and education their children need for a strong start in life," said Schmidt.

Since Fiscal Year 2002, federal funding of child care has been essentially frozen, while inflation and the economic needs of families have steadily increased. Today, only one in seven eligible children receives federal child care assistance. Across the country, hundreds of thousands of children are on waiting lists for child care assistance and on a daily basis, working parents face the impossible choice of keeping their jobs or leaving their children in low quality, unstable care. At the same time, child care workers do not receive the training or salaries that would encourage long-term retention. The turnover rate is almost 50 percent in a workforce that is so critical to the well-being of our children.

The challenging economic situation has made it difficult for states to provide, and families to afford, high quality child care. Baldwin's bill, a companion to S. 2980, introduced by Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA) in that body, will increase the access to and quality of these programs.

Specifically, the Starting Early, Starting Right Act will:

* Give states the funding they need to offer child care assistance to hundreds of thousands of children who are currently on waiting lists.
* Increase focus on the needs of underserved children, such as English language learners, children with developmental disabilities and other special needs, children living in very poor communities and children in rural areas, to ensure access for children most in need of high quality child care.
* Increase investments in state quality improvement initiatives.
* Require child care providers who are licensed or registered to participate in 40 hours of training before they work with children as well as 24 cumulative hours every year thereafter.
* Set aside 30 percent of the bill's funding to improve access to high quality care for infants and toddlers.

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