{"id":117885,"date":"2023-04-28T20:34:27","date_gmt":"2023-04-29T00:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=117885"},"modified":"2023-04-28T20:39:16","modified_gmt":"2023-04-29T00:39:16","slug":"reps-wild-scott-sen-murray-reintroduce-child-care-for-working-families-act-to-tackle-child-care-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=117885","title":{"rendered":"Reps. Wild, Scott, Sen. Murray Reintroduce Child Care for Working Families Act to Tackle Child Care Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Child Care for Working Families Act will ensure families across America can find and afford the child care they need, dramatically expand access to high-quality preschool programs, and boost wages for early childhood workers<\/em><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014<\/em>\u00a0Today,\u00a0Representative Susan Wild\u00a0<\/strong>joined U.S. Senator\u00a0Patty Murray<\/strong>\u00a0(D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and U.S. Representative\u00a0Robert C. \u201cBobby\u201d Scott<\/strong>\u00a0(D-VA-03), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, reintroduced their\u00a0Child Care for Working Families Act<\/em>, comprehensive legislation to tackle the child care crisis and ensure families across America can find and afford the high-quality child care they need. Senators\u00a0Tim Kaine<\/strong>\u00a0(D-VA), Bob Casey<\/strong>\u00a0(D-PA), and\u00a0Mazie Hirono<\/strong>\u00a0(D-HI) joined Senator Murray in leading reintroduction of the legislation alongside 33 additional cosponsors in the Senate. Representative Wild (D-PA-07) joined Representative Scott in leading reintroduction of the legislation alongside 43 cosponsors in the House.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 38,000 children in Pennsylvania are waitlisted, 1,600 classrooms have closed, and hundreds of child care positions remain unfilled. In the Lehigh Valley, over 1,500 children are waitlisted, and Carbon county is classified as a child care desert. That\u2019s why I\u2019m so proud to be here with my colleagues to mark the introduction of the\u00a0Child Care for Working Families Act<\/em>,\u201d\u00a0said Representative Wild.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cChild care is unaffordable for many, or simply not available\u2014this bill will help open more care providers and lower costs for parents, capping costs at 7% of a family\u2019s income. Not only that, but it will raise wages for the people taking care of our kids and increase retention rates for quality care providers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across the country, too many families cannot find\u2014or afford\u2014the high-quality child care they need so parents can go to work and children can thrive, and the worsening child care crisis is holding families, child care workers, businesses, and our entire economy back. Over the last three decades, the cost of child care has increased by\u00a0220%<\/a>, forcing families\u2014and mothers, in particular\u2014to make impossible choices, and more than\u00a0half<\/a>\u00a0of all families live in child care deserts. Meanwhile, child care workers are struggling to make ends meet on the poverty-level wages they are paid and child care providers are struggling to simply stay afloat. The crisis\u2014which was exacerbated by the pandemic\u2014is costing our economy dearly, to the tune of\u00a0$122 billion<\/a>\u00a0in economic losses each year.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Child Care for Working Families Act<\/em>\u00a0would tackle the child care crisis head-on: ensuring families can afford the child care they need, expanding access to more high-quality options, stabilizing the child care sector, helping ensure child care workers taking care of our nation\u2019s kids are paid livable wages. The legislation will also dramatically expand access to pre-K, and support full-day, full-year Head Start programs and increased wages for Head Start workers. Under the legislation, which Murray and Scott have introduced every Congress since 2017, the typical family in America will pay no more than $10 a day for child care\u2014with many families paying nothing at all\u2014and no eligible family will pay more than 7% of their income on child care.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The\u00a0Child Care for Working Families Act<\/em>\u00a0will:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Make child care affordable for working families.<\/strong><\/p>\n