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Stories and information in our region on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Child Care Centers Buckling Under Coronavirus, Experts Say

Bill Kasman from Pixabay

COVID-19 has worsened what advocates call a child care crisis in Connecticut.

Connecticut considers child care an essential service, so most child care centers have stayed open. But advocates and officials say COVID-19 is exhausting a fragile industry in which many centers have closed or laid off workers.

A new report from Connecticut Voices for Children says many child care providers make far below minimum wage, some as little as $6 an hour.

“Childcare is built on the back of low-wage women workers and very often women of color. And these women have been subsidizing businesses and governments and the whole system with their low wages,” says Beth Bye, commissioner of the state’s Office of Early Childhood.

The report recommends the state take short-term measures during the pandemic to help centers stay open and pay their employees more. 

Read the latest on WSHU’s coronavirus coverage here.

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Davis Dunavin loves telling stories, whether on the radio or around the campfire. He started in Missouri and ended up in Connecticut, which, he'd like to point out, is the same geographic trajectory taken by Mark Twain.
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