by Sonia Ahmed The New Haven independent
The State of Connecticut put $300 million into a massive Early Childhood Education Endowment at the start of July.
Now what?
Childcare providers and legislators came together for a panel discussion to chart a path forward at the Friends Center for Children Thursday morning, now that Connecticut has established a fund aimed at making childcare more accessible for families and a better-paying profession for workers.
The Early Childcare Endowment Fund was placed into effect on July 1 and is slated to fund a multi-pronged approach at making childcare more accessible for families and more sustainable for providers, including:
• An increase in the number of state-funded childcare slots.
• A historic tuition subsidy that would make those childcare slots free for families making under $100,000 per year and cap tuition at 7 percent of a family’s income for those making above $100,000, starting in Fiscal Year 2028.
• A healthcare subsidy for childcare workers.
In attendance at Thursday’s panel was State Comptroller Sean Scanlon, who moderated the discussion, as well as State Sen. Martin Looney, Executive Director of Friends Center for Children Allyx Schavione, and other childcare providers.
While the endowment is a big step forward, Schavione said there’s still more work to be done. There’s still more work needed to lower costs, improve transportation to facilities, and increase the number of available spots for children.
With the new endowment fund, 52,000 children are projected to have access to early education and care by 2035. But, Schiavone said, that’s only about 50 percent of the children who need childcare.
Schavione wants to create an additional 16,000 spots for childcare, but said infrastructure costs are a factor. One idea is to “require certain builds over a certain dollar threshold to have a childcare facility on the ground floor.” That way, those buildings can get a tax break, and it reduces costs for childcare providers, meaning more money can be invested in the quality of childcare. Gov. Ned Lamont has thought of doing something similar, according to Schavione.
Director of Systems and Policy Planning at the CT Office of Early Childhood Kristen Dudanowicz stated that investing in childcare is good for the economy, too. “Every dollar that we spend on childcare or early childhood education in our state returns $7 back into the economy in the future.”
Dudanowicz emphasized that for the first two years, the endowment will be in a planning stage, and data on where and what parents need most from childcare will be collected. At least five listening sessions will be held where both parents and the legislature will be present for discussion of how to improve childcare in the state. There will also be local assessments and parent-caregiver surveys. The latter will be available to take in person at community fairs.
“I think my wife and I spend almost as much on childcare as we do our mortgage,” Scanlon said during the panel discussion.
Eva Bermudez Zimmerman, the coalition director for Child Care for CT, said that in New Haven, “you’d be very fortunate to pay less than $20 – 21,000 for one child for a year.”
Schavione added that about 27 percent of household income in Connecticut goes toward childcare.
Zimmerman said that the natural assumption from new parents is to put their child in daycare for 2 days per week and then supplement the rest of the days with help from family or friends. The problem with that, however, are that many daycares will prefer to take on a full-time child, as there are a limited amount of spots. Therefore, Zimmerman continued, having a kid in childcare part-time doesn’t limit the cost by what parents might expect, as that child is competing with other children who could attend full-time. So, decreasing competition for spots would lead to lower costs across the board.
“This shouldn’t be seen as checking the box and moving on,” Looney said of the endowment. The work has to continue.
State Comptroller Sean Scanlon with lead of the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood Endowment, Kristen Dudanowicz.