The evidence is clear--children who participate in high-quality early childhood education programs have improved academic, health, and long-term economic outcomes. In addition to the outcomes we know quality child care provides to our youngest learners, it is important to understand the important impact child care has on parents. This week, Sinclair Community College announced a new program to support parents in their efforts to pursue higher education by offering subsidized on-site child care to low-income parent-students. “Many parents find it difficult to go back to school because of a lack of accessible and high-quality child-care service,” said Sinclair Community College President Steve Johnson. “By providing an on-campus child-care center we are able to eliminate a major accessibility gap for our student-parents.” Recent studies have shown that a lack of access to quality child care is one of largest barriers to parents entering the workforce or pursuing further education. When child care is hard to find or afford, women are the most likely to abandon education plans or drop out of the workforce to take care of the kids. For a single mother of two in Ohio living at 200% of the federal poverty level, child care would be more expensive than the annual cost of tuition at Sinclair Community College, making it nearly impossible to continue pursuing higher education. But when parents do have access to quality care, studies show that they are more likely to re-enter the workforce, work more hours, and increase their lifetime earnings significantly. Interested in learning more about Sinclair Community College's new child care subsidy program? Read more.
SAVE THE DATE
On May 8, 2019 early childhood stakeholders from across the state of Ohio will come together in Columbus to bring awareness to the importance of investments in early childhood education and communicate this important information to our legislators. We need your help to make sure the importance of early education issues rings loud and clear!
The Vote for Ohio Kids Leadership Forum may have passed, but our work is far from over! With Ohio's upcoming gubernatorial election less than a month away, it's time to ramp up the pressure on candidates Richard Cordray and Mike DeWine to make sure they make early childhood education and health care top priorities if elected. We hope you'll use the sample tweets and resources in this election-focused media toolkit to help elevate these issues and show our gubernatorial candidates that voters support increased investments in our youngest learners! If you haven't already, be sure to confirm your polling location and check out a sample ballot before voting on November 6th!