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.

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…

By Ed Mahon
PA Post

Child care providers across Pennsylvania face a choice in response to the state’s efforts to halt the spread of the coronavirus: Close their doors, or seek permission to stay open.

Both options present risks.

On November 18, 2019, across Pennsylvania, Start Strong PA released a new report demonstrating the benefits and need for high quality infant toddler child care. According to the Pennsylvania KIDS COUNT Data Center, Pennsylvania is home to 1,270,433 families with children and 418,455 of the children are under three years old.

The FY 2019-20 budget agreement allocated $27 million in new federal resources to expand subsidized child care in Pennsylvania and invest in quality improvements to the system. Start Strong PA stands with state policymakers in its firm belief that this is an example of a budget that “funds what works” and helps “put Pennsylvanians to work”. However, these federal gains in the child care line items were offset by a $36 million reduction in state funding which was replaced with federal dollars.

By WCED News

Senator Jay Costa and other speakers at the kick-off rally spoke about the importance of putting adequate funding behind early childhood education.

According to the speakers, prioritizing spending on early-learning programs will save the commonwealth long-term costs because children are better prepared to graduate school on time and are well positioned to enter the workforce with good paying jobs.

Start Strong PA observed the 2019-20 PA budget as an important down payment to ensure all infants and toddlers learn, grow, and succeed. The following statement was issued by the ten principal partners leading Start Strong PA, a campaign to ensure that children across the state can access affordable, high-quality child care programs during the most critical period of brain development, the first three years of life.