Your Action Needed: Help Save Quality Child Care in Ohio!
The Ohio Senate recently released its state budget proposal. In the proposal, the Ohio Senate effectively ends Step Up to Quality, Ohio’s 5-star Quality Rating and Improvement System. Additionally, the Senate imposes debilitating restrictions on federal emergency dollars designated to Ohio to strengthen the early learning system and the early education workforce.
The Senate’s proposal is a devastating blow to Ohio’s child care system and the classroom teachers who are the unsung heroes of our fragile system.
We are calling on Ohioans to speak out against the Senate's proposal to eliminate Step Up to Quality and restrict federal child care spending. Will you join us?
Groundwork Ohio Responds to the Ohio Senate's Devastating Proposal
Following the release of the Ohio Senate's proposal to eliminate Step Up to Quality, Groundwork Ohio snapped into action to mobilize Ohioans – including business and community leaders, early childhood educators, parents, and more – to voice their opposition to the Senate's devastating plan. Thanks to early childhood advocates like you, more than 3,800 messages have been sent to policymakers in less than 24 hours!
Groundwork also testified in the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday on the Senate budget proposal. In our testimony, Groundwork advocated for restoring the language regarding Ohio’s Step Up to Quality program, removing the language that prohibits how the state can spend federal emergency relief funding, and expanding child care access to families. This testimony comes at a critical time as the Senate plans to pass their version of the budget by end of next week and will quickly move to conference committee.
“By removing the requirement that publicly funded children be served by quality rated programs, the ‘child’ has effectively been removed from ‘child care,’” said Lynanne Gutierrez. “This proposal fails to give families the quality child care they need to work and the enriching early experiences that children need to succeed – all while undercutting the classroom teachers who are the unsung heroes of our fragile system.”
Finally, Groundwork Ohio has been engaging members of the press to inform them on the impact that the Senate's proposal will have on Ohio's child care system, young children and their families, and the early childhood education workforce.
Groundwork Ohio Responds to the Ohio Senate's Devastating Proposal
As child care professionals, parents, business leaders, and early childhood advocates continue to urge legislators to make quality child care more accessible to working families, a new analysis conducted by the University of Cincinnati Economics Center proves the tremendous value of quality child care.
The study finds that expanding access to quality child care from 130% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) to 150% of the FPL in Ohio would generate a whopping 10% return on public investment annually. Public investment in quality child care also results in considerable cost savings for taxpayers by reducing the need for public health, criminal justice, and other interventions.
At a time when child care has become one of the top barriers to families returning to work and Ohio’s most vulnerable young children have returned to school more behind than ever, Ohio must increase access to quality child care!
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