As it currently stands, the 2023-2024 state budget does nothing to address the child care teacher shortage.
The Start Strong PA Campaign is "shocked" by the lack of investment to address the current staffing crisis that has resulted in more than 1,500 closed classrooms and waiting lists of more than 35,000 children.
You raised your voices time and time again; our data was strong and compelling, but policymakers have ignored calls from working parents, child care providers, chambers of commerce, military leaders and others urging investment in child care wages to stabilize the workforce.
Reactions from two of our Start Strong PA & Pre-K for PA Provider Advisory Board Members:
“Without an investment in the early care and education workforce, you are going to see more empty classrooms because there won't be teachers to teach. They will go work elsewhere, where the burden and responsibility are less and the paycheck is more.”
“There is no way for our teachers' incomes to grow unless the funding does.“
While the current budget deal does allocate slightly more than $100 million in new state funding, it will only maintain the status quo in the child care system that is being propped up by waning federal one-time American Rescue Plan Act dollars. Maintaining the 60th percentile of market rates is important to help alleviate inflationary pressures on child care providers, but does NOT stabilize the child care workforce. As you know better than anyone, this maintenance of effort of the subsidy system is woefully inadequate given the scale of the commonwealth’s child care crisis.
Failing to invest in our early childhood workforce, which supports all other sectors, will continue to harm the commonwealth’s children, working families, and the overall economy.
We feel your frustration and will be giving you an efficient way of communicating with your elected officials about how our child care crisis continues to impact you, your program, the families you serve, and our communities at large.
Child care providers, if your program loses a teacher, they need to hear from you. If you close a classroom, they need to hear from you.
Parents, if your children are on waitlists, they need to hear from you.
If you are a community member supporting the industry, they need to hear from you.
