News, Op-eds, Advisories, and Releases

News, Letters to the Editor, Op-eds Jodi Askins News, Letters to the Editor, Op-eds Jodi Askins

My day care was my lifeline, and I was bereft when it closed. Thousands of Pa. families are facing the same fate.

Alison McCook
The Philadelphia Inquirer

This week, we will reach the edge of the so-called childcare cliff, when the pandemic-driven infusion of federal funds to save the childcare industry runs out. An estimated one in three childcare programs in the country — or 70,000 — may have to close their doors.

In Pennsylvania alone, nearly 3,000 programs are set to shut down, leaving 150,000 kids with nowhere to go. For many families, this may not be a big deal — they make a few calls, find another nearby place that has space for a new child, and after an adjustment period, everyone settles in to a new routine.

Read More
Op-eds, News, Letters to the Editor Jodi Askins Op-eds, News, Letters to the Editor Jodi Askins

Congress must act to avert the looming childcare crisis | Editorial

The Editorial Board
The Philadelphia Inquirer

Without federal action, three million children in America could abruptly lose access to childcare at the end of the month, a development that could push many parents — including, experts say, a disproportionate number of women — out of the workforce.

Roughly $37 billion in pandemic-era stabilization grants — which have ensured financial access to childcare for families — will lapse on Sept. 30, leaving families with no guarantee of continued care.

Read More
News, Letters to the Editor, Op-eds Jodi Askins News, Letters to the Editor, Op-eds Jodi Askins

Letter to the editor: Ending the child care staffing crisis

Eva Wood - Ligonier; Erin Schellenberger - Latrobe
Trib Review

The child care staffing crisis, caused by the sector’s low wages, is rapidly diminishing working families’ access to child care. Unfortunately, programs all across Pennsylvania are closing classrooms and further limiting families’ options as they look for a safe, high-quality learning environment for their child while they work.

Across Pennsylvania there are thousands of families sitting on waiting lists. This impacts the workforce in every other Pennsylvania industry. Child care teachers are the workforce behind the workforce, and we are failing them.

Read More
Op-eds, News Jodi Askins Op-eds, News Jodi Askins

Guest Commentary: The Cost Of Pennsylvania's Child Care Crisis

By Dan DeBone
The Philadelphia Citizen

Any family will tell you that balancing work and parenting is challenging in the best of times. With the parents of most young children in Pennsylvania working, child care is critical to supporting the Commonwealth’s labor force and employers.

When parents don’t get the help they need, it diminishes their work commitments, performance, and opportunities — costing Pennsylvania’s economy. This effect is the focus of a new study from the nonprofit ReadyNation and the Pennsylvania Early Learning Investment Commission. According to the study, gaps in Pennsylvania’s child care system are costing families, employers, and taxpayers about $6.65 billion annually in lost earnings, productivity, and tax revenue.

Read More
News, Op-eds, Letters to the Editor Jodi Askins News, Op-eds, Letters to the Editor Jodi Askins

GUEST VIEW: Alleviating teacher shortage should be a priority

The Sharon Herald

ALONG with being first lady, Jill Biden is also a teacher, and she once observed, “Teaching is not a job. It’s a lifestyle. It permeates your whole life.”

And it seems to be a lifestyle fewer and fewer young people are willing to adopt.

The United States is in the midst of a teacher shortage, and in Pennsylvania the situation has been described as “dire and worsening.”

There has been a 67% drop in the number of new educators who have become certified over the last decade, and in the 2020-21 school year the number of emergency permits issued to individuals to take teaching jobs exceeded the number of new teaching certifications from in-state programs.

Read More
Letters to the Editor, Op-eds Jodi Askins Letters to the Editor, Op-eds Jodi Askins

Letter: Financial situation difficult for child care providers

By Brenda Castellano
Reading Eagle

It’s tough for smaller child care businesses such as mine to pay staff what larger organizations are paying. Trying to compete with these organizations hurts the centers and owners, and we make sacrifices. This is why we are advocating for our legislators to invest in our industry like they do in the agricultural and energy sectors.

Read More
News, Op-eds Jodi Askins News, Op-eds Jodi Askins

Working families need more child care, at a cost they can afford

By Kate Rothstein
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

This November we have a choice. We must elect state and federal candidates who prioritize stabilizing child care and the needs of working families and value the work of early childhood educators. By voting for candidates who will invest in child care, we make an important choice for our young children, working families, and the future of our economy.

Read More
Op-eds, News Jodi Askins Op-eds, News Jodi Askins

Without state help, Pennsylvania faces a child care crisis

By Marci Lesko
The Morning Call

Working parents rely on affordable and accessible child care to stay in the workforce. Unfortunately, there is a national crisis because child care programs are unable to recruit or retain quality teachers. That staff shortage is forcing classrooms and facilities to close, limiting critical child care access.

Read More
Letters to the Editor, Op-eds Jodi Askins Letters to the Editor, Op-eds Jodi Askins

Letter to the editor: Solving child care staffing challenges

By Erin Schellenberger and Eva Wood
Triblive.com

The Ligonier Valley Learning Center has never had the staffing challenges it has today in the 38 years it has been in operation. While there are other businesses also struggling to recruit and retain staff, our industry supports the workforce of every other industry. If parents don’t have access to child care, they cannot work. If they aren’t available to work, businesses can’t hire them.

Read More
Op-eds Jodi Askins Op-eds Jodi Askins

Editorial: Issues with child care matter to us all

Lancaster Online Editorial Board

We entrust child care workers to care for our precious children, but we do not pay them a decent wage; workers in manufacturing can earn significantly more. Even child care workers who have education degrees are seriously underpaid. And the benefits often range from meager to nonexistent.

So it’s no wonder, really, that child care facilities are struggling to fill job vacancies.

Read More
Op-eds Jodi Askins Op-eds Jodi Askins

During coronavirus, child-care providers need the support they’ve always deserved

By Elliot Weinbaum and Rashanda Perryman
The Philadelphia Inquirer

This crisis has exacerbated issues that our city has been working to address for years, but there is more to be done. We all must act now — advocate for early childhood education, thank a teacher, contribute resources, time, and expertise to build the early learning sector — and continue to act when this plague has passed.

Read More
Op-eds Jodi Askins Op-eds Jodi Askins

Frontline workers in the coronavirus need dependable child care

By Stephanie Dolivera
Penn Live

Finding and affording quality child care was a problem prior to this current crisis - often serving as a barrier to employment for many potential workers. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation recently estimated the economic cost of insufficient child care in Pennsylvania to be $3.5 billion annually.

Read More
Op-eds, Letters to the Editor Jodi Askins Op-eds, Letters to the Editor Jodi Askins

Closed child-care services need support to get through COVID-19 crisis

By Gail Reaser
Lehigh Valley Live

My business partner and I have owned and operated The Children’s Garden for 16 years. Since this time we’ve achieved and maintained a Star 3 rating, which designates high-quality child care in Pennsylvania. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, like so many of my colleagues in early learning who are also small business owners, we’ve had to close our child care center.

Read More
Op-eds, Letters to the Editor Jodi Askins Op-eds, Letters to the Editor Jodi Askins

Pennsylvania child care centers at ‘breaking point’ due to mandated COVID-19 closures

By Kate Giammarise
Pittsburgh Post Gazette

The system is “truly at a breaking point,” said Cara Ciminillo, executive director of Pittsburgh-based advocacy organization Trying Together, speaking Tuesday on a conference call with reporters.

Providers are being hammered by a combination of an already fragile infrastructure and staffers who often earn low wages…

Read More
Op-eds Trying Together Op-eds Trying Together

Child care gap disrupts health care, state's economy

By Kendra Aucker
The Daily Item

Health care is bursting with opportunities…

What’s standing in our way? In addition to the supply of skilled workers in specialty clinical roles, a lack of accessible, affordable, high-quality child care for infants and toddlers, and it’s not a problem for health care alone.

Read More
Op-eds Courtney Centner Op-eds Courtney Centner

Investment in early education will pay off for all

By Julia Klein, Chairwoman & CEO of CH Briggs Co.
Reading Eagle

Investing in our young children is not hard. It's not soft. It's not complicated. It's not partisan. It's not up to someone else. It's an imperative backed by decades of research.

Read More