Childcare agencies in Connecticut have renewed calls for the federal government to help deal with a lack of child care options across the state — and the nation.
A recent survey by the Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance shows that since the pandemic, nearly two-thirds of the state's childcare providers are short staffed, leaving almost 19,000 children without care. And a third of providers are operating in the red.
“Staff need to get paid more to stay afloat themselves and have many more opportunities of other places to go. And parents can’t afford to pay more,” said Merrill Gay, the alliance’s executive director.
“If you look at the market rate for preschool and infant toddler care, if you’ve got one of each it’s $31,000 to pay for market rate childcare,” he added. “That’s more than what people are paying for a mortgage.”
US Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and State Senator Mae Flexer, D-Willimantic, joined Gay and childcare staff on Tuesday at the New Heights Child Development Program in Willimantic.
Flexer, who serves as federal liaison for the state Senate, called the state and federal governments need to do more to keep providers stable. The survey shows that of the nearly 230 childcare programs in the state, more than 70% were short staffed below state-mandated ratios of 1 adult for every 10 children.
“Childcare providers are having such a hard time maintaining their staff because they can’t compete with all of these other industries who also have vacancies,” she said. “They can just charge more. The childcare industry can’t charge families anymore than they already are. It’s just a completely broken system.”
“It’s keeping people out of the workforce now.”
Blumenthal and his colleagues have urged President Biden to invest $16 billion to alleviate the childcare crisis and pass new laws that would invest another $25 billion over the next decade.
His goal is “to cap childcare costs for families in need at $10 a day.”
