Thousands of childcare workers, parents, and community members around the state participated in rallies yesterday to draw attention to the importance of childcare and the need for the state to do more to support working parents and childcare providers. Childcare centers that participated in the fourth annual “Morning Without Child Care” closed their doors while workers attended.
At an evening press conference in front of the State Capitol, supporters shared that Connecticut parents spend an average of 27 percent of their household budgets on childcare, while the average annual wage for childcare workers is just $34,500. More than 40,000 children in the state don’t have access to quality care options, costing $1.5 billion in lost economic activity.
Hartford City Councilor Josh Michtom pointed out that, unlike other public goods such as well-paved roads and highly-trained fire fighters, the entire cost of childcare is left completely up to individual families to shoulder.
“Childcare is infrastructure,” he said.
“It is with great pride that I stand here with our fellow teachers, the people who usher children from birth to the point that they go off to public school,” said CEA President Kate Dias. “I am a parent who happily relied on people like you to love my children while I was busy loving other people’s children.”
She continued, “Early childcare is so critical to launching children on successful paths and creating those curious learners that become sponges for opportunity. The work that you do fosters a love of learning. That is so critical because children that don’t get that struggle—and they don’t struggle when they’re five, they struggle when they’re 15 and 16. We have to remember that the work done in these early formative years sets the stage for our children’s future success.”
CEA President Kate Dias spoke at a press conference calling for investments in childcare.
Rep. Kate Farrar is leading work in the State House on H.B. 5003 An Act Concerning the Early Childhood Care and Education Fund, a bill that would provide funding to support early childhood education and aid Connecticut families and childcare workers in a number of ways.
“Now is the moment,” she said. “We are working day in and day out right now to make sure that we deliver for all of you here, that we deliver for every single family in this state. It’s not just this ongoing, substantial investment. It’s about making sure that families can afford the care. It’s making sure that providers are treated fairly with higher wages and health insurance. And it’s making sure that we invest in the facilities that you all work in.”
“In Connecticut, we have such an enormous need,” said Senator Ceci Maher, Senate chair of the Children’s Committee. “We know how great our providers are, and we know that we have thousands of children who can’t get into good quality childcare with providers who receive good wages.”
House Chair of the Children’s Committee Rep. Corey Paris said that if the childcare field wasn’t dominated by women, particularly Black and brown women, workers would earn more than they do currently.
“You literally must be certified to be a childcare provider in our state, yet you make less than a dog walker in New Canaan, Greenwich, and Darien, and we’re okay with that. We’re okay with putting our children last,” he said.
“There is a unique opportunity to finish off this legislative session with real victories,” Eva Bermúdez Zimmerman, director of the Child Care for Connecticut coalition, said. “The economy makes everything go round. People need to work, childcare allows people to work, and that allows us to make sure the economy is strong here in Connecticut.”
